Into The Night
by Mimi's pet Chameleon
Summary: Tai finds Mimi stumbling drunk in the middle of the night and gives her a hand in spite of a recent fall out. Tension rises when Matt, Mimi's boyfriend, gets wind of the intervention. [Tai, Mimi, Matt Triangle] Chapter 6 up...the plot thickens...
1. Deception

**Foreword**

**Ok here's the dealio. I'm Mimi's Pet Chameleon, as it says so up there. But you can just call me Chame, much easier. This story I wrote about three years ago. Personally it is my all time favorite story I have ever written. Thing is I haven't been to this site in literally two years. I was beginning highschool and around 16 years old. Now I'm 19 and in college. So it's been a while. Last time I was here the Anime/Manga section was literarily less than half the size it is right now. I was here when Digimon was by the far the ruling category in the entire site. Heck, last time I was here no one had even heard of say…Naruto. So yeah, I am literally an old timer. Anyway I was thinking about this story the other day and it called my attention. I remembered all the ideas I had for it and decided to take a looksie around. And I decided to take another shot at it. This story is called into the night apparently, which is weird cause it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual story. Now I haven't written for fun in a long while so I might be rusty so be patient with me. Enjoy.**

**And one more thing…MICHI still rocks! HA!**

Into The Night

Chapter 1 – Deception

"Gimme another one!" a young girl yelled slamming down a small glass over a sleek wooden counter. She was sitting by herself in a tall stool in a small building, various people were sitting a few seats down the line of neatly placed stools, but apart from them the place was completely empty. A man behind the counter grabbed the glass and began to dry it with a plain white cloth. After it dried, he poured the contents of a tall green colored bottle into the tiny glass and placed on the counter. The girl snatched it like it was some kind of treasure and gulped it all down. She winced at the horrible taste, but managed to keep it down. "Do you know what it's like?" The girl said to the man behind the bar.

"No." The man said simply and without interest, already used to these kinds of situations, but as always he listened warily to what she had to say.

"To trust someone so much, and have them betray you?" The girl said to no one in particular. The bartender listened, but didn't have much interest. "Just yesterday everything was…perfect. You know what it's like to be mocked for what you are or what you did?" She continued lowering her head into her arms, she then pushed the tiny glass flagon forwards. "More please." She said sternly, motioning to it.

"I don't think so, you already had 10, you still haven't paid, and we should have closed a few minutes ago, even the usual drunkards are gone." The bartender said firmly.

"Gimme one more an' I'll pay. I swear." The girl pressed on lifting her palm as if under oath, but the bartender shook his head. "Oh come on, just one more?" She said woozily.

"Please miss, just pay so you can leave, you've had enough to drink already." The bartender told her decisively, becoming increasingly irritated. She just got up and walked towards the door, ignoring the demanding man trying to get his payment. She was already halfway outside into the cold, snow ridden, night, when a hand on her wrist stopped her from going on. "You can't leave without paying, you hear!" The same bartender said not letting go.

"Let me go!" The girl struggled to break free but it was no use, he was by far stronger then her, besides, her head felt to airy to find a way to break free.

"What's going on here?" Another man said nearing the two, he was tall and slender; his hair was light hazel, a perfect match to his eyes, but the color seemed to drain out of them thanks to the dark bags under his eyes. "Mimi? What are you doing?" The young man questioned now right in front of the two.

"Do you know this girl?" The bartender asked out of rash impulse. The youth nodded slightly. "She drank eight shot drinks, she owes me ¥3,980 yen!" The bartended said very agitated.

"I drank nine, actually…plus the second one you said it was on the house." Mimi said blearily with an as-a-matter-of-fact tone in her voice, while she used her index finger on her free hand to scratch her cheek.

"Nine. Make that ¥4,140." The bartender corrected and slightly surprised at the girl's honesty…or her drunkenness.

"You gave her what? Did you even ask for an I.D.?" The guy said not believing what was happening right before his very own eyes.

"Of course I did!" The bartender yelled defended. The guy cocked his eyebrow and noticed a small plastic corner at the girl's jacket pocket. He reached for it and saw it was a driver's license with her photo on it.

"21? She's 16 for crying out loud!" He said clearly outraged.

"Listen bud. Sixteen, twenty one, seventy three. I don't care, she drank the liquor she has to pay!" The bartender argued.

"You are one sick man" He shook his head feeling now very agitated, he dug his hand into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, he picked exactly the drink's fee and shoved into the bartenders hand, who shoved Mimi out of his bar. She began to stumble and seemed even unable to stand still, it was more of a sway from side to side. The guy caught her just as she was about to fall. She had to look up just to peer into her savior's eyes; feeling very surprised at his generosity, but immediately understood why he had been so nice:

"Hello Tai…wha' brings you here?" Mimi said unsteadily trying to get he balance back, but it was useless.

"I was just passing by and saw you. What in the world were you thinking! Going into a bar like this and at this time of the night?" Tai said feeling very shaken by what had just happened. "You're stumbling drunk!"

"I ain't drunk; I just had a wee bit." She retaliated simply.

"It doesn't matter, you're just lucky I found you. Come on I'll take you home." Tai told her firmly. But when he gave but one step he felt a tiny feeling of coldness reach his face. Right on the tip of his nose a snowflake melted into a small droplet of water. Tai looked up and inspected the clouds above them, many more snowflakes were beginning to sway from where the first on had come. "This is great…well I gotta get you indoors, and your apartment in on the other side of town. My apartment is much closer. I'll take you there, are you okay with that?" Tai said to a half listening Mimi, who nodded and took a step towards Tai, but before she could complete a second one, her already half open eyes closed completely, as in slow motion her body fell limply forwards, only to be caught by Tai. He picked her up with ease, apart from being relatively small; she weighed less than a feather. He gently placed one of his arms under her knees and the other one under her back and began to walk in the direction of his apartment.

By the time they got to Tai's place the snow fall had turned into an all out storm. Tai stumbled to open the door and carry Mimi at the same time. The dark apartment seemed to be completely deserted, but of course everyone was already asleep, it was indeed very late. Tai tenderly placed Mimi's limp body on a couch in the living room of his home. He threw a blanket over her and kneeled down by her, just staring at her.

"I don't know how, but you manage to surprise me every other day." Tai whispered at the fast-asleep girl who sighed deeply in her slumber. He then pushed a lock of honey brown hair away from her face and placed his hand on her forehead. Her temperature seemed fine, only thing she was gonna have to worry about is a terrible hangover for next morning. Tai hesitantly grabbed the phone that sat on the coffee table and dialed Mimi's house number. It had been a long time since he dialed that number. He actually had to go through his mom's agenda and look for it.

"Hello?" A woman's voice said into the receiver, she seemed to have been crying for her tone of voice.

"Mrs. Tachikawa? This is Taichi Kamiya, sorry for calling so late." Tai said feeling a bit bad for calling at this hour, "I just called to say that I found Mimi, I think she should stay here for the night, that snow storm isn't looking any prettier."

"Oh thank goodness. We were so worried. My husband had to come back in because of the snow. He was out looking for her. Thank you so much for finding her." Mrs. Tachikawa said feeling a lot more comfortable. "Is your mom okay with it?"

"…Yeah I told her, she says it's fine as long as I called you. Don't worry about a thing; I'll take her home first thing in the morning." Tai outright lied before hanging the phone. Finally, he could get some rest. He almost ran up to his room and slumped into his bed. He barely stared at the ceiling for two seconds before falling fast asleep.

**There we go. So this is almost the same as the original first chapter I submitted long time ago. Just tweaked and polished some stuff that was kinda ambiguous. The real new writing will be coming after chapter 5. So the good news, chapters 2-5 will be updated quickly. So till later, toodles.**


	2. Helping Hand

**Ok here is the revamped second chapter. I took the old one and tweaked some of it to improve performance, not to many new things here. I like this chapter. I like it when things get explained. Well most of anyway. enjoy.**

Into the night

Chapter 2 – Helping Hand

The eyes of a young girl opened slowly and groggily. "Where am I?" She whispered to no one in particular, lazily shifting to a sitting position. The minute she was upright her head began throbbing very hard; it felt like it was going to explode. She then began rubbing her temples softly, trying to ease the pain, but it wasn't working very well. If anything it made it worse. As her eyes got accustomed to her surroundings, she inspected the room. She was sitting in a dark green couch. A comfortable brown and tan, furry blanket was draped over her shoulders. A small coffee table stood in front of her, her coat was neatly folded on top of it. Her white shoes were sloppily thrown at the foot of the couch. She then looked down at herself; she was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, a pair of blue-jeans and a wine red button up shirt with oriental patterns on it. Her long, honey brown, hair was no longer in a ponytail, like yesterday; now it felt scrambled and messy.

She slowly got up and wrapped the large blanket tighter around herself. She struggled to keep her balance as she walked slowly towards the window. Peeking through the still closed blindfolds she saw she wasn't at her house, how she had hoped to be. She didn't recognize the street outside, especially since it was covered with a fresh layer of snow. Taking a look at the horizon, she could see it was barely dawn, many oranges and light blues decorated the morning sky. The clouds that should have fashioned last night's snowfall were completely gone by now.

"G'mornin." Mimi jumped in fright when she heard some on else in the room. She turned around to find Tai. He was wearing beige baggy pants with bags on the sides, and a large grey sweater with a hood. His famous goggles where hanging from his neck. He had a piece of toast hanging from his mouth. His eyes were half open and they had dark bags under them. "Up already?" He said biting a large piece of the bread and swallowing it.

"I guess…w-what am I doing here?" She asked hesitantly, walking back to the couch and sitting on it. Tai stuffed the rest of his toast into his mouth and walked over to her, plopping down on the other side of the sofa.

"I ran into you outside a bar, you were terribly drunk. Plus, it was snowing. I had to bring you here." He explained, Mimi only winced when she heard this. "Head hurts, huh?" Tai continued. Mimi nodded in response, "Here. Take these; they'll ease the pain up." He said extending his hand, revealing a pair of tiny, white, aspirins. She gladly accepted them. Tai pointed at the coffee table in front of them, on it stood a small glass of water. Mimi took it and gulped down both aspirins without hesitation. "What where you thinking! Getting drunk like that! Who knows where you could have ended up? What if some guy tried to take advantage of you?" Tai said angrily.

"I know, I know." Mimi said leaning her head on her hands, "I don't know what happened! I only had enough money for one shot. I thought I was only gonna drink one and get out of there. But the bartender offered me one more, said it was on the house." Mimi said trying to remember last night's events. "Uh…I think they had some security so no one really talked to me." She explained, "After that I drank another one. And then I just kept drinking and drinking. I don't remember much after that." She finished. Tai only looked at her in disbelief, and then he held up nine fingers at her. "What?" She said not understanding.

"Nine. You drank nine shots." She explained calmly, Mimi groaned. "The bartender then wouldn't let you go. My guess is he just wanted to get you drunk so you would keep drinking and charge you with a lot of money. Your very lucky I found you."

"…So…you paid for it?" Mimi said feeling embarrassed. Tai only nodded. "I'm…I'm so sorry, I promise I'll pay you back." Mimi said staring at the floor, she knew her face was very red by now.

"Don't worry about it." Tai said, then dug into his sweater pocket and took out Mimi's ID. He threw it on the table and Mimi saw it was split into two. "You don't even drive." Tai said simply, asking for an explanation.

"Oh that…" Mimi said feeling even more ashamed. "Matt gave it to me last week." She finished.

"So…why where you there." Tai finally asked, he had to admit he was rather curious. Mimi glanced at him and turned her stare back down at the carpet, hesitating "Come on…you can trust me…right?"

"It's just that…I haven't talked to you in such a long time." She admitted quietly, "…and…besides it's just that…I think that you might think less of me." She muttered.

"Well…you can be sure I won't judge you. That, and that I'm a terribly good listener." Tai said. Mimi looked at him again; he had a very faint smile on his face, it seemed bright even under the dark tired eyes. Maybe telling him might ease the knot that had been lurking around her stomach.

"Um…I guess." She said quietly. "It all began two days ago, on friday. You probably know I have been going out with Matt for a bit more than three months…" She beganm, her mind drifting to that night.

"I love you so much, you know…" A young man whispered into Mimi's ear, smiling broadly. He had warm sky blue eyes on a handsome face. His hair was dirty blond and long, just above his shoulders. They were both sitting on a couple of comfortable blankets neatly laid out in front of a lit fireplace that was crackling vividly. Apart from that the only other light came from several candles placed around the room. He warmly wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. Mimi smiled at him and leaned her head on her shoulder.

"Do you really mean it, Matt?" Mimi said lightheartedly, she couldn't be happier, she felt warm and safe in his arms.

"I've never been more serious." Matt said showing her a wide full hearted smile.

"Prove it then." She continued, turning to stare into his alluring blue eyes. Matt instantly leaned forwards and locked their lips together. After a few seconds, Matt parted their lips, only to stare into Mimi's closed eyes and her wide smile.

"Good enough for you?" Matt said tenderly, Mimi nodded a slight dreamy nod, her eyes still closed. Matt got the picture and joined their lips once more, then moving to kissing her face, then her neck. Matt placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed onto her back, with him on top. Matt, still kissing her neck, slowly unbuttoned the first button on Mimi's button up shirt…

Mimi sniffled, her eyes welled up with tears as she snapped back to Tai's place. "…Next thing I knew, I woke up in his bed. It was already morning and he wasn't there." Mimi explained. A pair of tears were sliding her milky soft flushed cheeks. Tai remained in silence; he knew that couldn't be it. "…I…went downstairs to look for him. He was in the living room…talking on the phone with one of his friends." She continued going back to yesterday's morning.

Mimi walked slowly, adjusting the navy blue bed-sheet she had wrapped around herself. I bet he'll like this she thought blushing a bit and feeling good about herself. When she neared the bottom of the staircase, she heard Matt muttering. She carefully peered around the corner. "…Yeah…just last knight…she believed every single word. I have her eating right out of my hand." Matt said and laughed lightly. "Oh yeah it was defiantly worth it."

"…and to think I was stupid enough to believed him when he said he loved me?" Mimi said chuckling slightly. Now wiping the stream of tears that was flowing from her eyes. "I just walked out of there without saying a word, I just heard him laugh loudly right before I left." She continued sighing deeply, "Later that day; I ran into some of his friends. 'Heard you had lotsa fun last night Tachikawa!' One of them told me and then they all burst out laughing." She finished, tears where now freely streaming out of her eyes.

"That's awful…I never thought he would fall as low as that." Tai said shaking his head. He turned to face Mimi and wrapped both his arms around her, she began sobbing quietly into his shoulder. "It's okay…" He said tenderly into her hair, trying to calm her down. "Come on…I have to get you home." He said standing up, and pulling her up along with him. He grabbed her winter coat and draped it around her shoulders. "Are you okay?" he said supporting her by her shoulders.

"Yeah…I think." She said wincing at her throbbing temples and feeling dizzier by the second. Tai led her through the door and out into the cold street. They walked in silence most of the way. The orangey morning sky was only beginning to lighten up. The air was chilly and sudden drafts of icy cold breeze sprung up from time to time. They soon passed the bar where Tai had found Mimi last night. It was amazing how so many of those places could be found right around the residential area.

"…W-what where you doing outside at that hour last night?" Mimi asked suddenly, remembering last night's incident. It suddenly struck her as odd to run into him that late at night.

"I work one of Friday night's shifts at the gas station near here. I also take one of today's morning shifts, that's why I'm up so early." Tai explained. They eventually began nearing Mimi's apartment.

"Thank you so much for helping me, Tai." Mimi said when they reached the front door. Tai only hugged her briefly.

"You know I'm here when ever you need someone to listen." Tai said smiling warmly, but that smile turned into a frown when he saw another person walking up to them. Tai recognized instantly: Tall, tanned skin, blond hair, guitar around his shoulder. It was defiantly Matt.

"Mimi!" He yelled loudly, making her jump. He quickened his pace and neared the two. "Mimi what are you doing! I have been looking for you!" He said ignoring Tai until he took a few steps and stood firmly between Matt and Mimi.

"I don't want to talk to you right now." Mimi muttered and walked into her apartment hastily, slamming the door in Matt's face. Tai sighed of relief and turned to leave, it had been almost too long since he had spoken to Matt, and he didn't think of starting now. But as soon as he gave but one step, he was stopped.

"Hey, Kamiya." Matt said indifferently, walking up to face him.

"Matt." Tai said nodding slightly.

"Listen. I don't know, or care what you told her. But you better stay the hell away from her! You understand me!" He said angrily, jabbing his finger into Tai's shoulder. Tai only nodded. Matt growled and turned to leave. Tai sighed once again and turned around and headed back from where he came from, back to the old routine. Work.

**Ah, good. Anyway, I wanted to say: Take your best shot at it. Critique. The HELL. Out of. It. As long as its constructive and not along the lines of 'this sucks' I can handle it.**


	3. A Break is a Break

**Hiya. Okay so I did tons of editing for this one. I changed tons of stuff. I think it came out so much better. Anyway thanks for the reviews, they were nice. I really like this one. Lotsa stuff goin on. Might be a little confusing. But don't worry, a LOT of stuff gets explained in the next chapter. Enjoy.**

Into the Night

Chapter 3 – A break is a break

Mimi hastily closed and locked the door, and pushed her back against it, as if someone was trying to force his way inside. She then began breathing faster and harder. Tears started to well up in her eyes again. Huffing, she slouched to the floor and hugged her knees tightly to her chest and began sobbing silently. How could he have the nerve to come up to her as if he had done nothing wrong? And then threatening the guy who so kindly helped her? The sole thought of this situation brought along a strong sense of nausea to her stomach. A hiccup made its way out in between sobs. This only made her sickness worse and made her realize what was really happening. With a look of shock she brought both hands to her mouth. She stumbled to get back up and ran the length of a small hallway and into a bathroom. She leaned well over the cup of the toilet and let it all out. She slowly raised her head woozily, her tummy grumbled and she tried kneading it to ease it, but it only made it worse. Her head was throbbing more than ever. She leaned over the toiled and sent out a second wave of vomit. An acrid taste remained in her mouth and even the slightest action, such as swallowing, rasped her mouth and throat harshly. As the grumbling in her stomach clamed down she began feeling weaker and weaker. She just leaned over the cup of the toilet and rested for a little bit.

"Hangovers aren't much fun, huh?" She heard someone say gently behind her. She slowly turned her head around to see her father standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and a displeased look in his eyes. She had half expected to find him hardly awake and in his night clothes. But instead he was completely dressed for work. What an excellent timing Tai chose to take her home, right before her father went to work. "I talked to Taichi's mother this morning." He said

"Oh no…" She whispered hoarsely and burring her face back into her arms.

"This is by far the stupidest thing you have done." Mimi's father lectured in the kitchen of their apartment. They had been talking about it for the past half an hour, and yet never seemed to get anywhere. She was sitting in a low stool, her arms crossed over the kitchen counter. Her headache had not improved much, her stomach would not let her swallow anything that wasn't plain water.

Her father was standing opposite to her, keeping his stare serious, buy just enough to let her know he wasn't joking. Scaring her wouldn't solve anything. He knew she was going to drink some day, just not so soon. "I just want to know why you did it." Bingo. That was the one question she had been avoiding for the last thirty minutes. Mimi knew the truth, she wanted to say the truth, she was going to say the truth. Just……not yet.

"I told you, I had problems with Matt, no big deal." Mimi mumbled gruffly, that damned putrid taste still lingered in her mouth, despite the abundant amount of water she drank. Of course what she said was true, just not very detailed. But what more could she say? Loosing her virginity at sixteen WAS a big deal; she had practically endangered her entire future.

"But, it was a big enough deal for you to get drunk at three am in the morning instead of coming to us?" Her dad said. Mimi hated to admit it, but every single word that came out of his father's mouth was absolutely true. "What if Tai hadn't found you? What would've happened then?"

"I don't know OK! I wasn't thinking. I was frustrated. I didn't know where to go at that moment." She said again burying her head into her arms. Soon she felt her father's soothing arms around her. She tried to ignore him and kept her head down. Her father sighed profoundly.

"Listen, you'll always be my spoiled little princess. No matter how fast you're growing." He said warmly into her hair. "You know you can trust me and your mom with anything that's bothering you." He said trying to comfort her, but instead just poking at the already rampant feeling of guilt that was tying up her already upset gut. "I'll talk to your mother, you just sit tight." He said releasing her and walking out of the kitchen, he only stopped when he was halfway outside. "This doesn't mean you can escape from punish-…" He said half smiling, but that smile vanished as soon as he saw her daughter hadn't moved one inch from her hiding place in her own arms. "…ok maybe later…" He finished, mumbling the last part only to himself.

Mimi lifted her head only after she heard her father close the front door. A river of tears was again sliding down her silky cheeks. His father trusted her so very much, yet she had lied to him, she all out lied to his face. Her feeling of guilt was unbearable. A perfect match for aching pain in her head, and the knot in her stomach. She hesitantly got up and glanced at the clock in the hallway, 5 minutes before seven. Even though she had only slept for merely three hours, she wasn't sleepy at all. But she did feel exhausted. Her ribs ached from throwing up and the floor sometimes seemed to shift from its place. She made her way up to her room, changed into her most comfortable pajama pants: A pair of pale sky blue pants with little white wing designs than dropped well below her feet, she had to adjust the cord really tight just to keep them on. For a shirt, she picked out an overly large t-shirt and unfolded it, it was dark blue with a white tribal design going across it on the front, it resembled on of those tattoos that go around the biceps. A tattoo exactly like Matt's, he had designed it as a logo for this band… She sighed threw it into a garbage can. It used to be Matt's work-out shirt. It fit like a glove on him, perfect for showing of his musculature. But when placed on Mimi, it fit very loosely, not to mention comfortable. She had stolen it from Matt's closet once, while he wasn't looking. Wait…why was she giving so much thought on this? All her thoughts seemed to be revolving around Matt. But why? What he did was done, so why not just forget the whole thing? Forget him? She swatted away all those feelings as she grabbed a random sleeveless white shirt and put it on. Her head had begun hurting again, in a routine that Mimi was getting very annoyed about. She plopped down onto her bed and slid under the fluffy pink covers. From then on, moving even one muscle cost her much work, but even then, her eyes remained wide open. When she closed them, the whole room seemed to move. She was now calmer than before; the talk with her father had eased her down by a long shot. But the thought of her mother is what frightened her the most. She knew how much she fuzzed over even the most trivial things. And this was everything but trivial.

"Mimi…sweetheart?" A voice said as the door to her room creaked open. Speak the name of the queen, and she shall come. Her mother stood on the doorframe. Mimi was glad she had been giving her back to the door before she entered; pretending she was asleep was only too easy.

Noticing Mimi was asleep, her mother walked over and sat next to Mimi. "I'm glad you're safe. Thank God Tai found you. I don't know what I would've done if soothing had happened to you." She whispered leaning over and kissing her cheek. There would be time for lectures and punishment later. Right now she was just glad to have her daughter back. For countless minutes she stared at her, gently stroking her cinnamon hair. "Well…work calls, I'll be back for lunch at two, you just sleep all you want." She said after a while, unaware that her daughter was, in fact, listening. She got up and left quietly.

After the door clicked shut, Mimi couldn't help but breaking into quiet sobs after hearing her mom's words. She was a little glad she had pretended to be asleep, or else she had a feeling that the talk would have been much different. The week before winter vacation had to be the busiest for her parents, so they were hardly around during most part of the day. After a few minutes she finally began to feel sleepy. A feeling she welcomed gladly.

Mimi's eyes fluttered open to face her clock on the bed stand. 11:37 am. Apart from the glowing green numbers, everything else was dark. Her mother had probably closed the wooden blindfolds to let her rest comfortably. She groggily stood up and headed for the window. The opened it and instantly a flood of light filled the room. She had to bring her arms over her face and squint for a few seconds as her eyes got used to the sudden rush of light. The morning sun was now up high in the sky that was as blue as it got, but even then, the city landscape seemed very cold. Mimi stretched herself as a tiny smile came to her face; it seemed like such a great day. She defiantly felt much better than earlier. Her moment of glee soon ended when the doorbell rang loudly, scaring the living daylights out of her.

"Good God…" She said leaning on the window frame, "What a day." she ran downstairs and was about to reach to the doorknob, but stopped. What if it was Matt? He knew her parents wouldn't be there. She had refused to talk to him earlier. She hadn't said one word to him since she left his house. It had to be him. The doorbell rang again. With her hand trembling, she hesitantly reached for the doorknob. The she made up her mind, she pulled the door open as fast as she could, a strong and cold wind rushed from the outside, making her shiver uncontrollably, but she ignored the cold completely and focused on what she was going to say…or scream, whatever.

"I TOLD YOU! I DON'T WANT TO-…" She yelled atop of her lungs but stopped in mid-sentence when she noticed it wasn't Matt standing on the door. "………Tai?"

"Hey." He said smiling casually. "You know it's OK if you don't want to……sorry I didn't catch the last part, I think my eardrums exploded." He continued sticking one finger into his ear, pretending to clean it, wincing a little.

"Very funny. I thought you were Matt." She explained blushing. Tai only shrugged. She noticed he was shivering uncontrollably. "Oh! Sorry, come on in." She continued stepping aside, allowing him in. She hurriedly closed the door, and shivered as the coolness of the outside began to warm up with the apartment's heating system. "So. What brings you here?" She said trying to bring up a conversation.

"Um…you know, came to see how you were doing." Tai said smiling, looking straight down at the floor. A very light tinge of red could be found on his face, but only if you knew it was already there.

"Why are you staring at the floor?" Mimi asked, kneeling down slightly to try and look at his face. But he seemed to be avoiding her glare.

"…well." Tai said, turning his stare up towards the ceiling. "…look at yourself." He finished pointing at her.

"Me?" Mimi said curiously, not quite understanding. She then followed Tai's finger, and looked down at her self, letting out a high pitched squeal. She was still wearing the sleeveless white shirt. Sure, it was comfortable, but it wasn't exactly largest piece of clothing she owned. She gasped and immediately brought her arms up and crossed across herself, turning a deep shade of pink. Tai chuckled loudly and gave her his back, still staring at the ceiling. Mimi looked around and spotted one of her mother's sweatshirts hanging on a hook on the wall. She made a grab for it and quickly put it on. "OK, you can look now." She said adjusting the sleeves of the garment, for they went straight over her hands.

"So. Just got out of work. Dropped by to see how you were doing. I expect that hangover was a bitch." Tai said, turning back around, now feeling more comfortable.

"Ugh. Don't even remind me." She replied bringing a hand to her forehead, it felt much better now, but there was still a small tingly feeling that wasn't quite normal. Tai just kept that patented goofy smile across his face. Waking up early and staying up late really made a difference in his personality, but deeper inside he was exactly the same. Even after a couple of months of not talking to him, he hadn't changed one bit.

"You look like you need some fresh, winter air. You wanna go outside? They just cleaned up the snow from the park." He offered, and what a great offer. Fresh air was probably what she needed right about know.

"Of course! Lemme just change! Come on!" She squealed, her spirited had been lifted greatly by his offer. She desperately needed to get her mind off the recent events. She nabbed for Tai's hand and pulled him up the staircase and into her room. "Now you wait here. No peeking." She said and disappeared into her gigantic closet. Tai took the chance to look around. Her room seemed to have only too shades: white and pink. It looked like it still belonged to a six year-old. Her bed was not made, all the covers were thrown at the foot of it. Countless stuffed animals of every shape, color and size were piled into one corner. Tai supposed they belonged on her bed, if by any chance it was ever tidy. Funny thing was that, no matter how messy her room was, not one article of clothing was lying around. Not one. And Tai, being the healthy teenager that he was, was utterly disappointed.

"What do you think?" Mimi said suddenly, making Tai jump. He wasn't looking for anything, no.

"Um what?" Tai said blushing a bit and noticing he didn't catch one word of what she said.

"How do I look?" She said twirling around for him once. She was wearing white pants and a pink sweater with a hood, and white sneakers. Her long cinnamon hair was tied back into a low pony tail.

"You look good!" Tai said truly meaning it. He wasn't a big fashion buff, but he could at least tell when someone looked nice.

Mimi looked down and examined her outfit again. "Yeah your right." She said with an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. "I'll be just one more minute." She said and disappeared back into her closet. Tai shook his head not truly getting the point he had gotten through, and apparently it was a good one too. Tai shrugged and dismissed it. He then noticed the picture frame that was quietly sitting on her beside table. He strolled over to it and examined it more closely. It was a picture of Mimi and Matt. She was holding a guitar, and Matt was sitting behind her, his arms around her and his hands on top of hers, showing her how to place her hand and play the simplest notes. She had a wide smile across her face, while Matt only had a slight smirk. Looks like she had really head over heals fallen for Matt. Behind him, Mimi had come out of her closet now fully redressed. She was wearing jeans with rhinestone patterns on them, a dark shirt under a long fluffy brown and tan coat that went all thee way to her ankles and a matching scarf around her neck. Her hair was held up in a messy bun with a pair of decorated chopsticks, two locks of her wavy hear we still loose and framed her face.

"It's not perfect, but it will work for now." She said as she put on the last touches of her make-up with a pocket mirror and a little brush. She looked away from the mirror noticing she didn't get Tai's attention. She saw him standing with his back to her holding something. "Whatcha lookin at?" Mimi said suddenly, peering at the picture frame in Tai's hands, from behind his back. "Oh…that." She said loosing her cheerfulness.

"Did he make you happy?" Tai asked out of the top of his head, then mentally slapping himself. Why where most of his questions that stupid? It was hardly the time to be asking things like that.

"Yeah…he made me very happy." She muttered sighing. "But, that doesn't matter now. Lets go, it's about us now" She said forcing her cheery mood back into herself. She nabbed the picture form his hands and placed it face-down on the small table. Tai thanked God for getting him out of without any guilt to carry.

"Wow, you look nice." Tai said when he noticed the radical change Mimi had gone through in just a few minutes.

"It's not the best, but I only had a few minutes." She said excitedly as they went down the stairs. Another gust of chilly air flooded the apartment when they stepped into the hall outside.

"So where are you taking me?" Mimi asked curiously, with big puppy eyes. It had been a few days since she had done something even remotely productive.

"Well the park seems like a good choice. I saw the paths were shoveled." Tai responded, any other place would either be covered in snow or too far to walk, he didn't feel like riding the train. So the park seemed like pretty much the only good choice.

"Mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmm!" Mimi while stretching herself. They were both sitting on a park bench talking about pretty much anything. Doing the catching up they had missed in over the last few months. "So tell me. How's your love life been treating you? Any girly girl I need to know about?" she said crossing her legs, placing her elbow on her knee and her face into her hand, and stared at sweetly at Tai. Tai chuckled and he little performance and leaned back. It was the question he knew he just couldn't avoid.

"Well…it sucks." Tai said smiling, "Haven't been able to find me a girlfriend yet. I guess I got really into working. I'm hardly ever at home anymore." He said closing his eyes and looking up into the sun. Mimi remained silent for a while and Tai opened one eye to see if she was still there, and she wasn't. Startled he looked around and saw he was sitting by himself. "Mimi?"

"Over here!" Tai heard her yell from behind him. When he turned around he was greeted by a handful of snow shoved into his face.

"Very funny! Attack a man when he's hurting." Tai said wiping the snow of his face only to see Mimi laughing a few yards ahead. Tai grinned mischievously and grabbed a hand full of snow and threw it at her. "Revenge is sweet!" Tai yelled raising his hand in victory when the snowball nailed her on the shoulder.

"You're asking for it!" Mimi yelled grabbing another hand full and chucking it back at Tai, missing him by an inch. Tai grabbed a small snowball and rolled it around for a few seconds making it much larger. He held it over his head with both hands, this would defiantly get her. As he was about to chuck it, he received a tiny snowball to the face making his loose balance and fall on his behind, and the large snowball falling squarely over his head, splitting in two and covering him in a flurry. Mimi couldn't help but collapse to the floor laughing and grabbing her stomach.

"Oh ho, it hurts!" She managed between laughs as Tai walked up to her, still covered in snow. Mimi only laughed harder when she saw him.

"Oh yeah…" Tai began shaking and brushing all the excess snow on Mimi. She squirmed to get out of the snow's path. "Yeah…laugh it up." Tai said smiling and rolling his eyes at her. Mimi then began to calm down to a mere giggle.

"I love snow." She said randomly, and began doing a snow angel. Tai only cocked at eyebrow at her and dug his numb hand into his pockets and watched. As he watched, her he felt a shiver come down his spine from the cold, but in there he could swear he felt his heart skip a beat and his cheeks get even redder than the snow had made them. Tai pushed the thought out of his head. It was probably nothing. "You know…there is no such thing as a perfect snow angel…no matter how hard you try, your handprints will always ruin it when you try to get up." Mimi said.

"That's not true. Here." Tai said offering her his hands. She took them and was pulled up easily, revealing a perfectly done snow angel. "Wow she looks just like you. She has your eyes" Tai joked, making her giggle. "May be I should call you angel instead."

"Oh that is it!" A voice yelled from behind them. Tai turned around only to be shoved onto his back and into the snow, ruining Mimi's snow angel. "I thought I had made myself clear when I said I didn't want you near her!" It was Matt, he was glaring directly at Tai.

"Matt what are you doing!" Mimi yelled at him as Tai got up and dusted all the snow off himself. Matt completely ignored Mimi and shoved at Tai once more. This time Tai only stumbled, but managed to stay standing.

"Come on! I'll take you right now!" Matt yelled at him raising his fists, threatening him. Tai jammed his hands into his pockets and shook his head.

"No." He said firmly, but avoiding his look altogether, "I'm not gonna fight you."

"Matt, stop it!" Mimi shrieked at him, but was ignored once more.

"Come on, you wuss!" Matt yelled once more and lunged his fist at Tai's face, hitting him head-on. This time Tai stumbled and fell back down, clutching his face. "I told you stay away from her." Matt threatened walking towards him, cradling his hand, he had obviously hurt himself too.

"Matt! That's enough!" Mimi yelled standing between the two.

"NO, it not enough! MOVE MIMI!" Matt said furiously.

"It's enough when I say so!" Mimi yelled over him. Matt's stone expression faltered only a bit and he dropped his fists to his side. Tai was barely getting up, his hand still clutched his face.

"Are you OK?" Mimi said turning to Tai, he nodded. "Let me see." Mimi said motioning to his face. He slowly removed his hand from his face. Mimi gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. There was a small cut right under his left eyebrow and was bleeding profoundly, a large portion of his face was bloody. His whole eye seemed twice as large and was turning a shade of purple. As soon as a slight breeze lifted, Tai winced and brought his hand back to his face. He had to shut his other eye tightly due to the pain. Matt smirked at the sight, he hadn't done a half bad job. "Oh my God…" Mimi whispered in concern, "Come on, lets get you cleaned up." She finished placing her hands on his shoulders and guiding him on his walking.

"Mimi wait! I still need to talk to you!" Matt said hushing his chuckle and walking after her, and trying to stop her by holding her shoulder.

"Stay away from me! We're done talking, we're done arguing! It's over!" She yelled at him and shook his hand off of her.

"Mimi…" Matt tried one last time, his furious eyes softening a bit. He was utterly ignored. "Kamiya…" He muttered to himself, clenching his fist into a ball, feeling his nails biting into his palm. He had half a mind and to follow them and force Mimi to listen to what he had to say, but thought better of it. Giving up, he sighed and turned around and picked up his inseparable guitar case that he had carefully parked on the park bench, and continued on his way home. That was twice today he had run into Mimi and Tai together. This morning on the way to practice with his band he saw them both outside Mimi's building and now a second time on his way back. Well what ever it was, it was going to stop.

**All done. Hoped you liked it. Next chapter will be up soon, I'm just about done with the edits. Toodles.**


	4. Memory Lane

**Okay now THIS I like. The part where everything gets confusing! Yay! I did mayor updating to this chapter, I promise it will make things clear. So a word of warning. This chapter is filled to the top with flashbacks. Big ones. So be on the look out for those transitions. I tried to be some kind of professional by not marking them and kinda just transitioning into them. But that probably failed. SO this chapter might seem a little weird. Juts be one the lookout.**

Chapter Four – Memory Lane

"Oh come on! Quit your wining." Mimi said over Tai's complaints. She was cleaning Tai's cut with a piece of cotton and some iodine. Tai only nodded and winced as he saw Mimi inch the cotton closer to him.

"OW!" He yelled as soon as the cotton so much as grazed his face.

"Oh stop whining, it can't be that bad!" Mimi said jumping and retreating her hand as quickly as she could.

"But it hurts!" Tai complained. The swollen part of his face had eased down considerably. The blood had now been cleaned up, the cut turned out to be just a very small opening above his eyebrow.

"Ok, I'm done. You'll live." Mimi said smiling and closing the iodine bottle and watched curiously how Tai poked around the cut with his finger to see where it still hurt.

"Aren't you gonna kiss my boo-boo to make it feel all better?" Tai said thankfully, not having to bear Mimi's fist aid skills anymore.

"Oh my, of course! How could I have forgotten?" Mimi said and leaned over to him but stopped when she noticed what Tai's boo-boo was covered in. "...Maybe...some other time." That just wasn't reason enough for her to taste iodine.

"Ok then, I better get going, you parents should be here soon." Tai said getting up. "Thanks for the…you know." He said motioning to his cut.

"Yeah, I'm probably in for a long talk with them." She said dismissingly. As if on cue the front door of the apartment opened. "Ah...speak of the devil and she shall cometh." Mimi said gesturing with a sigh. Tai only chuckled at her remark.

"Bye angel." He whispered grinning and giving her a quick wink and walked out of the kitchen. There in the doorway was Mimi's mother; she was standing cleaning up stray snowflakes from her winter clothes. "Uh...good afternoon." Tai said politely, catching her attention. This was the first time Tai had seen Mrs. Tachikawa with an angry expression on her face, and he could say, it wasn't pretty.

"Why good afternoon Taichi. What brings you here?" Mrs. Tachikawa said forcing a smile to her face, not noticing Tai's injury.

"I just dropped by to check up on Mimi. I was just leaving." He said quickly ending any chances of conversation. Talks like those made him feel very awkward.

"Well how considerate. You're such a polite young man. Thank you again for helping our daughter." She said quickly. That was it, that was what made him uneasy. "I talked to your mom about it this morning." Tai turned a few shades of pink and muttered a thank you and moved towards the door.

"If you would excuse me, I really have to be leaving." Tai said nervously, Mrs. Tachikawa nodded and stepped aside for him to exit, which he did gladly. He glanced back seconds before Mrs. Tachikawa closed the door only to see Mimi's head leaning out of the kitchen. Tai smiled at her, but she never saw it coming because she pulled her head back when she saw her mother turn to look at her. Tai heard her angry screams even through the door. He could only imagine what she had in store for Mimi. He sighed and began his way home.

So many things had changed in so very little time. He hadn't so much as spoken with Mimi in over three months. Now that they a chance to do so, she acted the exact same way she did all that time ago, they were still best of friends. Everything had been so complicated, but somehow he remembered as clear as if it all happened yesterday. His mood dropped a little more when it all came rushing back to him…

It was a warm August morning a little over two years ago. The sky was just about as blue as it gets. A light breezed flowed freely though the modern train station. And yet all these perfect conditions were the exact opposite of what Tai was feeling inside. To put it simply, he felt gray.

"You take care son." Tai's father told Tai as he hugged him tightly. "Make me proud!" This was it, he was leaving. He was going over to a boarding school up north, all the way in Hokkaido. Thing is, this was his own decision

"Have a safe trip. Call us as soon as you get there." His mother said when it was her turn to hug him. Not even he truly understood why he chose to leave. Or so that's what he tried to convince himself to believe. But deeper inside him, he knew exactly why.

"Bye brother. Come back soon." Kari, his little sister, said hugging him as well. If there was something he regretted by leaving. It was this. He loved his sister very much. Sure they had their brother/sister fights all the time, but he still liked being around her. The thought of not seeing her for an entire school year really depressed him. More so than he already was.

"Can't believe you're leaving man." T.K. told him shaking his hand. He only nodded in response. "Now there are only four of us left here." That was it, there was nobody left. That was his reason. When he was gone only Kari, T.K., Matt and Sora would remain in Odaiba, out of the group of 12 friends, joined by destiny. Only four remained. But...no, that couldn't be it. He wouldn't leave just because he felt alone.

"Oh Tai, I'm sorry you have to leave." Sora said tenderly wrapping her arms around him. "We'll really miss you." She said leaning her head against his chest. Tai blushed and hesitated, but slowly wrapped his arms around her.

"Thanks…I'll miss you too." Tai muttered letting her go. She held on for a little while longer but, finally let go. Sora, Sora, Sora. This had to be his real reason. He couldn't kid himself any longer. Fact of the matter was: He liked Sora. Nay, he loved Sora. He loved her oh so very much…But let's start at the beginning, like all romance tragedies start: Long time ago. Tai had always considered Sora and his relationship to be strictly a friendship. Of course it was a very strong and close friendship, but that was it. Tai never so much as thought about romance of any kind between them. Then came that ill-fated day, the day Sora confessed romantic feelings for him. Tai was struck aback and didn't know what to do. He was left with no choice but to turn her down. He was convinced that they were best friends and they would forever stay like that...just friends. After a couple of awkward days things settled back down and their friendship was unfazed. Time passed and the more he though about what had happened the more he came to realize that maybe he was wrong. Maybe this friendship could become more than that. He began feeling that maybe Sora was right all along, they worked together. Whenever they were together it just clicked. But by the time he realized he didn't want Sora as his friend anymore, that he cared for her a lot more than a friend, it was already too late.

"Be seeing you later man." Matt said shaking his hand, "Keep in touch." He said then walked to where Sora was standing and placed a caring arm around her waist. Tai winced to himself when he saw this. He sighed a fake smile and turned to leave.

"I'm off…" He said getting on the train. He quickly found his seat and settled down for the trip. He leaned his forehead on the glass looking out onto the platform where his family and friends had come to send him off. He spotted Matt and Sora holding hands and whispering to each other, giggling every once in a while. Yamato "Matt" Ishida, his eternal rival. He was the one who stepped forward when he turned Sora down. This was only one more reason to call him a rival. But this time he couldn't just fight him and try to make it all go away, like when they were kids. No, this time the sole fact of seeing Sora smile like she did when she was with him was enough to make Tai force the thought of defeat into his head. He couldn't help but feel bad. Not in a jealous way. He tried really hard not to hold a grudge against Matt, after all he didn't do anything wrong. He felt bad for himself, he hated himself for not realizing his feelings in time and that it wasn't him down there on the platform holding hands with Sora. His Sora.

Well, it was done. He was aboard his train; there was nothing he could do now to turn back. He thought, forcing other matters into his head. Soon the engines came to life and he began moving. He peered through the window and onto the station platform once again. His family and friends were waving goodbye at him from down below. Soon enough the platform disappeared as the train went into a tunnel. And everyone was gone. Just like that. And now he was too. He could feel the sleek back of his Crest of Courage against his chest underneath his shirt. It felt unusually cold, not the soothing warmth that usually emanated from it. Fitting…he felt everything but courageous right now. He dug into his pocket and dug out a pair of blue goggles and hung them around his neck. They were the very same goggles he had given to Davis. He had returned them right before he moved to the United States. He didn't want to go, but his father's job forced them to move. He came back as often as he could, but that still only meant that they got to see him a few weeks a year. He was urging to get into college so he could just come back, but that was still a few years away. Hell, Tai was only starting high school himself. But Davis was the second to go. Mimi had been the first to move to America, even before their great adventure was over, although she never did give them a straight reason for her to move. Next was Joe, he transferred to a prestigious high school in Tokyo so he could get easy entrance to Tokyo U's Medicine Department. He was still close to them, but he rarely visited. He always said he was too involved in his studies. Then it was Cody, he moved with his grandfather to China, after participating in several kendo exhibitions and tournaments. They were invited to move China and further develop Cody in the art of kendo and other martial arts. Izzy was also into his studies. He was pushed up a few years and was now studying at a boarding school in South-Japan, getting accreditation for Tokyo U as well. And finally Ken and Miyako, after Ken found the courage to open his heart to her, they were in-separable. Then disaster struck for them when Ken was offered a once-in-a-life-time exchange program to a South-American high school, he didn't hesitate to comply. Everybody knew how much he loved South-American history and culture, but he loved Miyako even more. Not wanting to leave her behind he convinced her to participate in the program too.

Those were their reasons to leave. But Tai's reason was different, he wasn't leaving. He was running away. Running away was not something he liked to do, but things had changed. He had changed…

Tai unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped in. "I'm home!" he yelled throwing his keys on a nearby table. "Anybody home?" he said a bit louder. "Mom?" He said looking into the kitchen. "Dad?" He continued looking for his father in his home office. "Kari?" he finished looking into his sister's room. Everyone was gone, perfect. He never really enjoyed being alone. But there were some rare exceptions. This was one. He strolled back into the kitchen and reached for the fridge, but stopped when he saw a note on the door. He ripped it off and read:

"Went down-town with Kari back at six. You missed lunch! Meatloaf and veggies in the oven. Don't overwork yourself, OK? Love mom. PS: Feed Miko."

"Ugh...meatloaf?" he mumbled to himself. He despised meatloaf. Besides, it's not like he was THAT hungry. He jumped when he felt something brush against his leg. But sighed when he saw it was only his cat, Miko.

"Danm it, cat. You scared me." He said kneeling down and stroking its fur. "You hungry?" he said, the cat only dropped its head to the left as if it understood what Tai was saying. He then poured cat foot into his bowl and left to the living room. Tai leaped into the couch, leaving his shoes behind. What a perfect opportunity for a rest. That late-nighter and early wake up had him real tired. Fumbled the remote for the T.V. and turned it on to a random channel, not really planning to watch anything in particular. He shoved one of the couches pillows into her face. After a few seconds he noticed a smell coming from the pillow, it was very faint, but a smell none the less. He couldn't quite place it, but he was sure he had smelled that before. A few sniff later he recognized the light smell of melon and strawberries. It reminded him of Mimi. This was the pillow she must have used. The faint sound of the muffled T.V. along with the soothing smell of Mimi's shampoo made Tai real woozy and soon slipped out of consciousness. And right smack-dab in the middle of memory lane.

A young girl with long, wavy, cinnamon brown hair and large chocolate eyes sat by herself on a wooden bench. A small cloud of vapor appeared in front of her face every time she exhaled. The sky above her was slowly turning from yellows and oranges to purples and blues, while many small glimmers appeared one by one in the evening sky. She hugged her thick white jacket close to her as the warmth of the afternoon left with the sun.

"I can't believe he ditched me." She said stomping her foot against the snow covered walkway. A street light right above her flickered to life just when her watch gave the 7 o'clock beep.

"Well, well, well...what would such a lovely young girl be doing out here at this hour." A man's voice came from behind her. She jumped and turned around, only to see a silhouette shadowed right outside the streetlight's field of illumination.

"W-who are you?" She said taking a step backwards, shocked to see someone there.

"I'm just a friend." The stranger responded taking a step forward. His voice seemed to warm up with this sentence.

"Don't...don't come any closer!" The girl threatened. She was beginning to feel nervous. But there was this...something that calmed her down...something very...familiar...

"What? You saying you've forgotten me?" He said grinning, making the girl frown. "I certainly haven't forgotten you…Mimi Tachikawa."

"Who? Who exactly are you?" She said dropping her head to a side.

"Come on Mimi. I'm hurt." The man said finally stepping into the light. It revealed an easygoing face. His warm brown eyes seemed welcoming and full of energy. His tall posture and well build body clued constant exercise. His hair was light brown and messy, it seemed to be trying to point at every direction at once. This was a figure Mimi recognized instantly.

"Taichi Yagami Kamiya!" Mimi said, a wide smile growing upon her face.

"Yours truly." He answered nodding.

"Oh my God! I can't believe it's really you!" Mimi screamed and ran at him arms wide open. Tai caught her and threw his own arms around her, picked up and spun her around once before placing her back down. "You scared me, you big jerk!" she pouted at him "How you've been! It's been...what? Four years?" She asked trying to remember when was the last time he saw him.

"Long enough, I'd say." Tai said sitting down where Mimi was. She sat next to him. "So when did you come back from America. No one really told me you were here."

"I got here just after summer break, this August." Se said counting off the months in her fingers. "Matt told me all about you deciding to go to a boarding school. You were never interested in school so why did you go?...Really."

"Well...I...don't think...I can remember." He responded grinning while scratching the back of his head. "Buuuuuuut...I don't really care anymore. What ever it was, it was worth it."

"Huh, was it that good? Matt said you were bummed out when the guys said good-bye to each other when you left." Mimi continued placing her index finger on her chin.

"Yeah well, you know. First days were kinda hard, but when I got the hang of the system it wasn't bad at all. Their soccer team was not half bad either. I had all the soccer I could possibly handle." Tai answered. Mimi stared at him with a puzzled look on her face. This couldn't be possible. Tai? LEARNING? And enjoying it? Not very likely. "But enough about me. What in the world were you doing here, all alone?"

"Oh my God!" Mimi said bringing her hand to her moth. "That's right! I forgot. I was supposed to meet Matt here. He asked me out." This particular statement hit Tai like a brick thrown from very high.

"Hold on...if he's asking you out then that means...that means he broke up with Sora?" Tai said getting a wee bit excited.

"Well...yeah...they kinda had too." Mimi said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"What do you mean 'kinda had too'?" Tai said "I don't like 'kinda had too'." He wasn't really sure he wanted to know now.

"Sora went to a tennis tourney in England. Some scouts saw her and was recruited by one of their schools or something like that." Mimi explained not really believing that Tai had no clue of what had happened.

"What?...when?" Tai urged her for information.

"She left in late August, I was barely able to see her." Mimi answered. After this Tai grew quiet. "Tai? Are you OK?"

"Huh?...oh yeah, don't worry." He responded shaking his head. Well how could he be okay. It was over. Sora...his Sora was gone. And he didn't even know when she was coming back. If she was coming back at all. Before, when she was with Matt, he could at least see her. Spend some time with her. But now, not even that was possible. What was worse was that he didn't even know what had happened. At first, when Tai had gone, they used to e-mail each other almost daily. That eventually turned to a few times a week, to once a week to once a month. He didn't quite know what happened, it just did. "Well...I-I don't think Matt's coming. You wanna head home? I'll walk ya." Tai said after a while, desperate to change the subject.

"Well...oh sure, why not. I can't believe he didn't show." Mimi said standing up. "I always did wonder what it would be like to date him." She continued placing a finger on her chin, making Tai raise an eyebrow at her.

"What are you talking about?" Tai said standing up as well.

"Well you know. He tries to act all though, but I know he's different. Just have to get to know him better. And they way to do that is by dating him. I guess I was just curious." She explained. "And I always did wonder what it would be like to kiss him…" She whispered devilishly as he cheeks tinged with red.

"Say what?" Tai said with wide eyes, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Nothing." She said cheekily, turning even redder. "I mean, come on, haven't you ever been curious?" She asked sweetly.

"Well…I always though of Matt and me as just friends." He said firmly, "He is dreamy though." He finished in a high pitched voice. Mimi couldn't help it, but to burst out laughing.

"No you dummy! I meant with someone else!" She said through her laughs. Tai let out a tiny unnoticeable sigh, turning back to Sora. He shook his head. No thinking about Sora right now.

"I guess." Tai said chuckling, "So you ever wonder what it would be like to date...oh I dunno, say me?"

"Hmmmm...no, not really." She answered simply, innocently shaking her head at him. Her straight forwardness sometimes was just a little dense. Her Crest of Sincerity did justice to her alright.

"Well…There goes my very last drop of self-esteem, right out the window. Come on lets go." Tai said patting her back. They both started walking a very slow pace.

"Hey! Hey Mimi wait!" A voice yelled from behind them. They both stopped and looked backwards. Matt was running towards them, franticly waving his hand at them.

"Mimi! Oh God I'm so sorry! I had to stay with the band a little while longer and-" Matt began explaining, but stopped when he noticed who was standing behind Mimi.

"Hey." Tai said smiling at him. Matt's eyes widened after seeing him.

"Well I'll be damned, if it isn't Taichi Kamiya." Matt said coolly, smirking at his old friend.

Tai looked down at himself and rummaged his clothes as if looking for something. "Good God, you're right!" He said with a fake awestruck tone. He chuckled a bit and went to hug his old comrade.

"Long time no see. What are you doing here; I thought you didn't get in for a few more weeks." Matt asked shortly after.

"Ah well, the school was cool and all, but enough was enough. I couldn't take a whole other semester of that. I grabbed and early train to try and surprise everyone. But uh, everyone either already knows or isn't here so the surprise is pretty much ruined." He explained with a hand behind his head.

"...I'm still here you guys." Mimi said rising a hand, asking for attention.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry! You wanna get going?" Matt said remembering his date.

"Yeah let's go...Say Tai, you wanna come with? You deserve some fun on your homecoming night, ne?" Mimi said, Matt snapped his head at Mimi then slowly fixed his gaze on Tai. Sure, he was happy Tai was back and all, but this was still his date. Nobody messes with his date...not even best friends. As a best friend he should know that…right.

"Nah, you guys go ahead. I gotta head home." Tai said, taking a peek at his watch. Matt sighed secretly in relief. "Ooh...is that what time it is? Actually I gotta run home. I'll see you guys later."

"That's too bad!" Matt lied, "We'll see ya tomorrow right?"

"Yeah of course!" Tai said as he broke into an all out run. He looked back to see Mimi waving at him. He smiled and turned his head to see where he was running, but it didn't last long. As soon as he faced forward, a large metal object...presumably a light-post...met with his face. He stumbled for a few seconds and fell on his back.

"Tai? Are you OK? Wake up sleepy head. Tai! Get up!"

"Ok, ok...I'm up. I'm awake." Tai said groggily, and sitting up. He ran a hand down his face and focused his eyes. His younger sister, Kari was standing in front of him smiling. "Oh what a dream..." He mumbled to himself.

"Mornin sleepy." Kari said ruffling his hair. "Mom said to wake ya up. It's already late."

"Late?" He said shifting a bit to the right so he could see a clock on the wall. Soon his eyes grew wide. "6:30! Oh good God I am late! Again!" He yelled standing up and breaking into a run towards the door, barely missing his sister. Just before he reached for the doorknob, he stopped dead in his tracks and looked back. Kari was standing in the exact same spot with her head leaned to the side and one eyebrow raised. She was also holding his jacket on one hand and his keys on the other. "Oh, right!" He said running back to her and taking them "Gotta go to work. Tell mom I won't be here for dinner. Love ya, bye!" He said as fast as words would come out and kissing his sister's cheek, later resuming his run to the outside.

He was well away from his house when he slowed down to catch a breath. "Well I'm late already. Might as well be really late." He mumbled to himself as he slowly walked forwards not really looking where he was going, rather letting his feet take him to work. As he stared at the frosted white sidewalk moving under his feet, images started to form in his head. Images from that dream he just had...it was all coming back to him. Thing is, it was all so very accurate. It was more like he was remembering instead of dreaming. Well remembering sure seemed to be the order of the day. So much had happened in the last day it was hard to keep the images out…

Tai walked down one of his school's many corridors. It had been a while since he had arrived from boarding school and had been reunited with Matt and Mimi, who were now officially dating. He finally heard from Sora a few days ago. She explained the incredible experience and all the fun she was having. Pfft…yeah I bet she'd have more fun if she were here with us. Tai was happy for her, he really was. He just missed her a lot sometimes and wished she would just come back.

He had begun studying as a junior at local Odaiba High along with Mimi and Matt. T.K. and Kari where there too. Of course they were only freshmen. He was already used to the much simpler system, and was it so much easier to follow. He constantly looked up and down the corridor, absolutely no one was around. It was pretty late already so he wasn't surprised. He had already said bye to Matt and T.K. It was weird, he and Matt weren't hanging out as much they used too. Recently he seemed to be spending more time with his band and other friends instead of him. The worst part was that Tai didn't know how to approach him about it. He really did wish things would just go back to normal.

He lifted his hand to show a crumpled piece of paper in it. One single sentence was written on it. It was scribbled in what seemed a very rushed pace. He read it over carefully:

Tai: Please meet me in the third classroom on the second floor. It's really important.

Who could have written this? Truth to be told he was kinda exited to figure it out. Deep within his own head he pictured a girl had written it and was urging to tell him how she felt about him. Yeah…that would be nice. "Well this is it." He said to himself and lightly pushed the half open door, making it creak unusually loud. Mimi, that was sitting on one of the many desks, jumped when she heard the noise.

"Oh it's you." She said sighing deeply. Her voice seemed low and distant.

"Mimi? You're the one who wanted to see me?" Tai said not really understanding the meaning of this get-together.

"Tai, listen I need to talk to you. Just...sit down and let me talk first, ok?" She said, her voice cracked a few times when she was talking. There was no trace of her usual airy mood or cheery personality.

"What? Is there something wrong?" Tai said taking a seat right in front of her, utterly confused. He tried looking into her eyes but her gaze seemed to avoid his own. He was getting a little worried now.

"Look. You know I've been going out with Matt for a while now." She began explaining. Tai opened his mouth to say something, but Mimi quickly raised a hand to quiet him down. "Please, just listen first...You see...Matt is very jealous of me...he said that...that..." She continued, but stopped and shifted her stare downwards again.

"What's...goin' on." Tai said raising an eyebrow, he placed his index finger on her chin and forced her to look at him. By this time tears were flowing freely out of her eyes, smearing her mascara over her soft cheeks. "Mimi what did Matt say!" he urged, he was getting really worried.

"He said...that I can't see you anymore..." She whispered shaking her face of his hand and looking in any other direction.

"What do you mean you can't see me anymore! You're one of my best friends; I can't just cut you out of my life!" Tai said growing impatient.

"I-I-I'm sorry..." She managed through sobs. "I-I just have to..." She said standing up and running towards the door, she flung it open only to crash into someone, Matt. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her. Mimi despised this idea and pushed Matt away from herself, only to continue running.

"Guess you got the news." Matt snapped at Tai, who was still sitting in one of the desks. His watch slowly turned from the wall to Matt. His eyes were full of resentment towards him.

"You can't ask her that..." Tai whispered standing up and walking so he was right in front of Matt. "You know you...can't."

"You listen here! She is my girl now! You better stay away from her!" Matt threatened with a smirk plastered across his face.

"You know I won't do that." Tai said calmly, but Matt's reaction took him by surprise: He grabbed hold of Tai's collar and even managed to lift him just a little bit.

"Well you better start sucking it up." He said shoving Tai backwards, making him fall down. Matt shook his head at him and exited the room…

That was pretty much the last set of words they exchanged up until...well Mimi's drinking incident. Man! He had had enough trouble having to get over that, and now it was back fresh on his mind. But the weirdest thing was that after a few days Mimi seemed to be back to normal, it seemed that she was OK with Matt's decision to forbid her to see Tai again. Anyway, after that happened, he pretty much didn't have friends anymore. Just people from his other classes that waved at him occasionally in the halls. He tried joining the soccer team, but the utter competitiveness of the high school leagues and the winning obsessed coach sucked the entire flavor out of the game for him. It was no longer about kids having fun, it was about athletes and winning.

He didn't have much of a choice, but to look for work to try and keep his mind busy. But all that just changed yesterday and today. Today he had a wonderful time with Mimi in the park. At least until Matt showed up. He just couldn't help but feel good about it. He had a feeling that things were about to liven back up. After all, Mimi was done with Matt and now he could see her whenever he wanted. In fact if he didn't have work right now, he would probably go see her. Speaking of which, he should arriving to work soon. Indeed he had been walking most of the way staring straight down. When he did look up he was already there, the gas station where he spent many of his wake hours. He took a deep breath and looked up, making his final decision.

"Ya know what? Screw it all!" He said smirking. He flung the door open and walked in as if he owned the place.

"Kamiya! You're late!" some one yelled at him with what seemed to be an angry voice. He recognized the voice instantly. It was his boss. He was always really edgy about work hours. He was a short plump man. His dark greasy hair was balding and had slight hints of white in it. Same went for his mustache. "You're always late! I'm reducing your pay!" He continued with his so called angry tone.

"Oh gee wiz boss, I'm sorry...It won't happen again." Tai said scratching the back of his head.

"Good." His boss said nodding.

"Until next time at least." Tai continued.

"WHAT was that Kamiya?" His boss said raising an eyebrow.

"Oh no...the Kamiya that works for you is dead. Got run over...poor bastard. Me? I'm Tai and I quit." He said proudly announcing his resignment, turning around and walking towards the door.

"What! No. Don't quit, you can't quit! You know how hard it is to find good work?" his ex-boss said beginning to get nervous. Tai knew he would break. He pretended he didn't but he couldn't handle any pressure. "Wait I know! I won't lower your paycheck."

"Not interested." Tai said simply not even bothering to face him.

"Ok, I'll...raise your pay." He continued finally being defeated. Tai immediately stopped in his tracks and turned around. His boss's face lit up a bit, but sank back down.

"Well...maybe if I think about it...no." He said chuckling and left.

**That's it. It's done. So, like I said, confusing. Now I swear this thing works. I've checked a million times and somehow the continuity works, I just know it works. So if you didn't get it, another read would probably do it. If that doesn't work, drop me a line, I'll answer best I can. Next chapter up soon!**


	5. Another Chance

**Plot devices galore! I love this chapter. Lots of fun stuff happens. But before I let y'all read I have this big huge allegorical rant that…aw hell, just read it. Enjoy.**

Chapter five – Another Chance

Mimi woke with a startle. She groggily lifted her head a tiny bit over the covers to peek at her alarm clock. 4:37 A.M.… Still. Last night had been one of the longest nights of her life. She had finally gotten around to talking to her parents about the drunken mishap. They just kept rambling on, saying the exact same thing over and over again. As if they were trying to infuse it into Mimi's very brain. 'Shut up, I got it the first time' was clearly not an option, so he had opted to just stay quiet. By the time it was over, she had gotten herself indefinitely grounded and her sleep depraved considerably. To make it worse, the now familiar extreme sense of guilt lingered around her. The reason? Simple. She was still to talk to her parents about her…relationship with Matt. To top it all off, she had been waking up every hour or so and having lots of trouble getting back to sleep. Worst of, it was Monday. Monday…the one day that was hated by all sixteen year-olds world wide. The one day that was followed by four continuous days of books, teachers, and even worse…grades. She shuddered at the mere thought of them. But she shouldn't be worrying about this right now. Sleep was priority right now. She buried her face into her pillow and flung the covers over her head leaving only a tiny gap for her to stare at the glowing green numbers of the alarm clock. The numbers crawled on slowly reaching and going past 5:00 A.M. and yet her eyes refused to close. She twisted and turned, but no position seemed comfortable enough. She finally threw the covers off of her in frustration. She got up and stumbled through her dark room and made her way all the way to the kitchen, her bare feet sticking to the sleek tile floor. She poured herself a glass of water and sat on the counter taking her sweet time to drink it. Tomorrow was really gonna suck, and she had less then an hour to prepare for it. After she was done, she crawled back into her bed and settled down. The clock on her bedside table read 5:24 already. At long last her eyes began to feel heavy and she dozed off.

"Mimi! Wake up honey!" Mimi heard through the covers, after a few seconds. Then came a few knocks on her door. Her mother, who else could it be. "Hurry up you're late!" Oh come on, nice try. Mimi was positive she had set her clock and alarm just right the night before. She peeked through the covers looking for the shining green numbers of the clock, but they where nowhere to be seen…which was unusually strange. She bolted upright and looked around for her clock, and soon realized that that wasn't the only thing missing. Her pillow was gone as well. If she listened closely, she could hear a very faint noise…kinda like a…buzzing sound. She traced the weak trail down towards the small gap between her bed and the nightstand. There, stuffed deep down, was her pillow. As she reached to recover it, the buzzing sound grew steadily louder. Under the pillow, her alarm clock was buzzing loudly. She reached for it, turned it off and returned it to her original place. It was until then she realized it.

"What!" She yelped seeing 7:14 am displayed on her clock. She WAS late, really late. As in my class started fourteen minutes ago late! She changed as quickly as humanly possible and rushed to the door. She was stopped just before she reached for the doorknob.

"Hold it!" Ah yes, her mother. How could she have forgotten? "Remember what we talked about last night. You go to school and you come straight back, understood?"

"Yes mother." She answered with a huff.

"Good, now hurry on. You're late." Her mother continued optimistically, hurrying her outside. How could she be so cheery? What was there to cheer for anyway? Mimi hated Mondays oh so very much, everyone seemed had something to be happy about, but her. It was always the same thing. She took a very uneventful train down to a station near school, and walked the rest of the way. She didn't meet anyone on her way to her classroom. Well there was still the fact of punctuality to consider so it only seemed right to walk alone through the hallways. She rounded the last corner to get to her classroom, but she stopped dead on her tracks…her books…she needed books and notebooks. And her locker was on the other side of the building. She had sudden urge to scream at the top of her lungs but that somehow felt inappropriate. SUCH was her luck, or her memory. Which ever she could blame would be fine. She lazily made her way to her locker, no point in rushing anymore now. After picking out the correct books for her next class (going to first period was practically pointless.) she noticed a small piece of folded paper that she didn't quite recognize. She unfolded it and found a few words written on it.

_3:15. Music Room._

Mimi recognized the handwriting instantly: Matt's. She read it over and over again. Why would Matt do this? He had never, EVER left a note on a girl's locker. As if she would want to see Matt. She sighed without putting more thought into the note and slammed her locker shut. She turned around to be greeted by Tai's face. Mimi yelped and dropped all her books and papers to the ground.

"Good god Tai! You scared the livin' daylights outta me!" She said kneeling down to pick up her things, secretly placing Matt's note inside one of her books.

"You did need a wake up call after all." Tai said kneeling down along with her. Mimi looked at him and saw a wide smile plastered across his face.

"Yeah…had a long night." Mimi said giggling at Tai's expression. "What's with you?"

"Now what? Can't I be positive once in a while?" He responded handing her the last piece of paper.

"Sure…I guess." Mimi said standing up, everybody else is... "What are you doing here anyway?"

"This is school right?" Tai answered looking around as if he didn't know where he was. "I'm supposed to learn or something like that."

"Nooooo!" Mimi responded laughing and playfully shoving at Tai's shoulder. "I mean, aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Well…no. I just got here. Teach wouldn't let me in. Something about lateness." He said looking up with both hand behind his head.

They walked aimlessly waiting for time to pass by. Tai's mood seemed to have really changed since yesterday. He was very talkative and lively. Plus he didn't look as tired or sleepy as any other day Mimi had seen him. Hmmmm…she was sure catching a lot of details on Tai. She had never really had a chance to look at the finer points in Tai's self.

"Whatcha starin' at?" Came Tai's voice from what seemed to be very far away.

"Huh?" Mimi responded as if snapping from some kind of trance. "Oh…no…nothing. Just…spacing out." Their walk had eventually leaded them to a bench near to where Mimi's next class was. Soon after a loud buzzer could be hear throughout the school, indicating the start of the second period.

"Well that's my cue. I gotta go. That Biology teacher is a killer." Tai said getting up. "I'll see you later?" He continued expectantly. Mimi only nodded in response. Tai smirked at her warmly and walked into the river of people filling the halls. Mimi sighed and got up herself. Math was the one class she did not want to be late to. She was about to walk into her class room when someone cut in front of her. She looked up and saw Matt walking perpendicular to her. Mimi blinked once and when she opened her eyes everything seemed to have slowed down except her. Matt was looking straight forward and strangely enough, he was alone. Matt slowly turned to look directly at Mimi, his azure eyes peered straight into her own chocolate ones. But his gaze left her before she could even begin to contemplate it. Things then started to move at the right speed again. By the time she realized it, Mimi was staring at Matt's back dissolving into the lessening crowds of people.

"What was that?" Mimi whispered under her breath. It was then when she remembered the note Matt had left her. Why did he want to meet her after school? Especially if he could've talked to her right now? After all, the talk Mimi planned did not need more that the moments they had between periods.

"Miss Tachikawa what are you waiting for?" A man said behind her. It was her Math teacher: Mr. Kusaka. A tall, lanky man, around his 30's, he had light blue eyes behind a tiny pair of glasses; his hair was dark and messy. He was defiantly one of the more kindhearted of the Math teacher clan, still strict enough to keep the class under control. "Well?" he continued seeing that Mimi did not make even the tiniest move. Plus she was standing in front of the door so the flowing of people in and put of the classroom was pretty much null.

"Oh yeah, sorry." She answered shaking her head and walking into the classroom. Math was the one subject she did well on. A fact that somehow most people found unusually surprising. After all, high school math was a very widely hated subject, probably because of the very high index of fails. Anyway, while math was a good subject for her, it was also the only good subject for her. Out of her thirteen different subjects, math was the only one that she found easy, everything else just refused to get into her head.

"Okay everyone. Today's lesson will cover pages 74 to…" Her teacher began but she refused to listen to anything else. The hours of sleep she had missed had begun taking their toll on her. She tried to hold her head straight with her hands, it only worked for a few minutes, soon her eyes began to faze in and out of focus. Her entire effort to stay awake proved futile only too soon. Her head dropped down to the desk and into her folded arms.

Mimi's head suddenly snapped up. As her eyes focused to her surroundings, she noticed that the classroom was now completely empty. How long had she slept for? She slowly got up; her head still felt a bit woozy. Through the windows, Mimi could see a cloudy and foggy mid-day. She made her way to the door, she was about to reach for the doorknob when it creaked open loudly. The sound was very loud and high pitched, making the ambient seem very eerie. Mimi even got goosebumps all over her arms and back when a light draft from one of the open windows flowed inside. Convinced that she didn't want to be there anymore, she flung the door open and tried to storm out. But she was stopped before even crossing the door frame. She had crashed into something face-first, hitting her nose. She winced to try and ease the slight pain. It seemed to be working until she felt something creeping up her back, making the hairs on the back of her neck stick straight up. What exactly had she walked into? Ignoring all the distractions, she looked up and into a pair of beautiful blue eyes, but not just any pair of beautiful blue eyes. Oh no, these where Matt's beautiful blue eyes.

"Matt?" Mimi managed to whisper sorely, forcing the words through her throat, trying to figure out the odds for this to happen. But that thought disappeared when his arms closed around her and she was pulled into his chest.

"I've missed…" Matt whispered tenderly into her ear, then nuzzling her hair. Mimi's expression changed to one of surprise when she heard these words. But why? She knew that was a downright lie…right? No…the way he said it…it was different. Still not wanting to be convinced, Mimi turned her head sideways, resting it on his chest. Her mind told her to push him away, but her body wouldn't respond. Seeing the fog outside, the gray clouds in the sky, the cold drafts swaying the trees, she just couldn't help feeling warm and safe in his arms.

Her line of thought was broken by a silhouette that had rounded a corner down the hall. It walked in a slow pace. Its face seemed to be looking down and its shoulders hunched. It almost felt that it was trying not to draw attention to itself. What Mimi saw next sent a chill down her very spine: Thick layers of fog seemed to be following the shadow. Terrorized, Mimi yelped in hope Matt would do something. But he didn't react, as if he hadn't even seen the figure. Mimi tried to look at him in the eyes, but they turned out to be closed, even slight hints of tears could be seen in some of the eyelashes. Matt seemed to feel her staring and only tightened her grip on her. Panic began invading Mimi. She tried but couldn't break free of Matt. She turned back to the shadowy figure; it was now standing right in front of them. Seeing it up close, Mimi found this silhouette to be very familiar. It reminded her of something…but she couldn't quite put a finger on it. Her train of thought was broken when she was forced to look once more into Matt's eyes. He had let go of their embrace and tenderly placed his hands on Mimi's cheeks. A deep blush filled them as soon as his hands even began to graze her face. What exactly did he want to do? Apart from making her uncomfortable, of course. Mimi tried to shove at his chest but her hand just fell numb when they touched his chest. Matt just continued to stare meaninglessly into Mimi's eyes. It seemed forever until he made another move. But alas, this was the one move Mimi did not want to remember, much less re-enact. Matt began inching forwards, leaning into her, everything felt silent once more. All she could hear where her own heart beats thundering across the halls. Their already fast pace increased as she watched how Matt's lips got closer and closer to her own. Mimi was now desperate to get away from him, but not one muscle responded. Finally, after the longest time, their lips met. Mimi's hands, that were on his chest, tightened into a pair of fists, each clutching a piece from his shirt. Her eyes closed instinctively. Her heart was now beating furiously on her throat. Not wanting to bear with this any longer, she forced one eye open. She looked at the shadowy figure, it was still looking at them, but this time it was shaking what seemed to be shaking its head. It then turned around and began walking away. It was still very familiar, the way it walked, the hunching pace, the tired pose…but where…where had she seen it…wait…THAT was it! Realizing she could move again, she shoved Matt away from herself.

"TAI!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. His silhouette stopped and stood up straight, but it only shook its head again and continued walking. "Tai wait!" She continued and began running towards him. Strangely, she couldn't seem to catch up to him, even though she was moving a lot faster. The hall itself just seemed to get longer and longer. When she was finally getting near him she made up her mind and leaped at him, she was positive she could wrap her arms around his stomach and make him stop. But as soon as she touched him, he just vanished. Gone, just like that. She had no choice but to crash land into the cold floor…

"Mimi. MIMI! Wake up girl!" Mimi heard a distant voice yell at her. Even father back, an annoying buzzing noise echoed. She slowly raised her head to stare at one of her classmate's puzzled look. "You ok? You slept through the whole class." Whole class? Doesn't she mean whole day? She glanced to the clock at the other side of the room, what she saw made her groan deeply. Her second period had just ended. What had seemed like hours had been barely 50 minutes. "Well?" her classmate insisted.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." Mimi responded dismissingly. But that wasn't true. How could she be fine? That dream…It seemed so real. At least at first then it just seemed a tad too farfetched. Still, it had to mean something. Somehow she was seriously considering Matt's note now.

The rest of the day just snailed by. The same pattern over and over again. She couldn't stay away for even half of the periods. At least the rest of her naps stayed dream free for the rest of the day.

Right now? Physcics. Last period of the day…finally. Still physics wasn't the liveliest of hours. So boring you'd fall asleep even if you were alive with energy. That's right, it's that bad. But at long last the last buzzer of the day agreed to sound. Mimi crawled out of her desk and hurled her backpack over her shoulder. Next step: home and a real nap. She walked slowly down the halls, yawning every now and then. In fact a large yawn made its way to her mouth right now.

"Hey Meems, cover your mouth! You're lettin' the flies out!" …Meems…it had been a long time since someone had called her that. And she didn't like one bit. It was a large effort getting people to stop back then. Only one person would insist on bugging her:

"Hi Tai." She answered forcing a slight smile to her face.

"You don't look like you learned anything at all today." Tai continued trying to strike up a conversation. She just shook her head in response. She didn't seem to be in a real talkative mood. But that didn't stop Tai from enjoying his own mood. He began making his so called witty comments on other students that passed by. They all just laughed at him. They looked like they actually enjoyed the remarks. Mimi only watched and let out a giggle once in a while. After a while they where ready to leave for home. But Mimi stopped dead on her tracks before passing the last door of the hall: the band room. She dug into her bag and pulled Matt's note out. Should she go in? She had been trying to make up her mind for a long time, but not choice was made yet. She looked over to Tai, he was joking with one of his buddies. Strange she didn't seem to remember Tai ever talking to him before. Eventually he made his way back to her. He bit her lower lip and made up her mind.

"Um…Tai? You go on ahead. I'm…gonna wait for someone here." She said to him, shredding the small note. Almost instantly his cheery mood quieted down and his expression changed to a frown.

"It's Matt, right?" He said with a sudden serious tone. Mimi nodded and looked down at the floor. Tai shook his head in disapproval. But what could he do? It was her decision. "Alright. Good luck then." He finished tapping her shoulder once. He then turned around and left. Mimi sighed and walked it. She expected to see Matt standing in the center of the room, but strangely no one was there. Up on one stool was a guitar. Mimi approached it and picked it up. There were two tiny letters inscribed on the side: MI.

Mimi remembered that a while back Matt insisted on teaching her at least one song, even though she was so incredibly dense when it came to playing an instrument. She sat on the stool and placed the guitar on place. If Matt didn't show up before she finished play-…well trying to play she would leave. She placed her fingers on what she though were the right cords and played. So far it sounded about right. She played a few more notes until the singing part came; it was where she had the most difficulty.

"Wow. I can't believe you remember." Came Matt's voice from behind her. "Last note was kinda off though." She turned around to see him placing a large, black, box on the floor. It was probably a speaker box. Mimi wanted to say something but she couldn't quite place the correct words to say it. But what could be so hard to place about: Leave me alone DILL-HOLE!

"Here, I'll show you." He said and walked behind her. He then placed his hand over hers and moved over to the right position. "There…play it." He whispered onto her ear and placed his head on her shoulder. Mimi did as told, following his instructions. He was a very good teacher.

_I see the world differently,_

_now that I'm here with you._

_I wish I could stay here for ever,_

_trapped in this moment._

He just had to sing that verse, didn't he? It was a song Matt had written for her, the one she had learned.

"I've missed you, you know." Matt continued whispering into her ear. He then wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. That was it, Mimi finally snapped. She dropped the guitar and jumped out of the stool.

"Whoa, whoa!" She yelped loudly getting her distance from him. Matt picked up his guitar and placed it carefully back into its case, then took at step towards her. "Don't come closer." She warned. "You're not gonna use me again!" She yelled at him.

Matt cocked an eyebrow at her, "Use you? What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? Are you serious? You said you loved me! I went to bed with you cause I though you loved me! Those were all lies! I heard you talking with your friends on the phone!" She yelled furiously at him, her breath soon ran out and has to gasp for more.

"Hey, hey…" Matt said walking closer to her, but she just turned her face and refused to look at his face. "Hey…look at me." He said warmly.

"What?" She huffed turning to look at him.

"Relax…" He said simply and placed a hand on her shoulder. Slowly she regained her breath again; she took one last deep breath.

"Don't touch me!" She said and swatted him away. And taking another step back, coming to a wall.

"Okay, okay" Matt said pulling his hands away.

"I'm listening. You got five seconds." Mimi said crossing her arms.

"Those things I was talking with my so called friends are just nonsense. I really do love you Mimi. I know I wouldn't give over what we have over some tiny discussion like this. Would you?" He said seriously. That was a good point. What should she say? Was this even true? "Would you?" Matt repeated.

"Well…Matt…I…" Mimi said looking for words once again. She shifted her stare away from him and tried to focus on anything except Matt.

"Would you?" He asked again, getting closer to her.

"Well no, but…" Mimi said reluctantly.

"But what?" He said coming even closer, placing his right hand on the wall right next to her face. His face was now barely even inches from her own, his eyes looking directly into hers. Mimi felt her cheeks began to redden. "We love each other, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter what other people say or think. Give me another chance. What do you say?" What did she say? Good question. Everything he said, it sounded so…honest.

Meanwhile, outside Tai was just outside the front gate. He still couldn't believe Mimi actually went to him. Did he have a problem with it? Of course he did! He didn't want Mimi to begin avoiding him again on one of Matt's whims. Well…Mimi probably would turn him down. Right? Yeah, she would. That's when Tai realized he was not walking anymore. He was standing a few feet away from the school gate. This is stupid…everything would be fine. Mimi was smart and strong. So then why was he walking back? Okay Matt could be a little persuasive. And Mimi admitted he was head over heals for him. Okay so maybe it wouldn't be just fine. Okay that's it. And with that Tai broke into an all out run back into the school…

Well this was it. Mimi had made up her mind. She slowly closed her eyes and locked their lips together. Matt seemed a tiny bit surprised at first but then relaxed and wrapped her arms around her waist and even lifted her off the ground a little. Matt placed her gently back on the floor and their lips finally parted.

"That's all I need to know." Matt whispered and hugged her Mimi again. And they just stood there. After countless minutes Matt finally reacted. "Come on lets go. I'll take you home." Mimi nodded in response. They walked out of the music room. "Hang on. You go ahead. I gotta lock up." Matt said and walked back in. Mimi walked slower than usual, waiting for Matt. She hadn't crossed the first hall when a figure came running towards her.

"Oh no." Mimi whispered to herself. It was Tai. What would he say if he knew that she had made up with Matt? He was very jealous of him. And everybody for that matter.

"Mimi! Oh good. Listen." He said when he caught up to her. He grabbed her shoulders as he gasped for air. "I really don't think you should get with Matt again."

"Why not?" Came Matt's voice from behind Mimi. He walked up to her and stood on her left side. He then grabbed her hand and held it. Tai prayed that Mimi would shake him off, but she didn't. Instead she looked down at the floor and bit her lip.

"Well…I see how it is then." Tai said clearing his throat, "I…I better go then." He finished and began to walk away. Matt stared at him until he turned a corner.

"Matt?" Mimi muttered. There was something different about her voice. Almost as if she was ashamed to talk.

"What's wrong?" He answered back.

"You…you have to let me see Tai." Mimi muttered looking up at him. "You're my boyfriend, but Tai is one my best friends."

"Mimi, it's just that-" Matt began but was interrupted.

"You have to stop being so possessive!" Mimi insisted.

"No, Mimi…It's not that I don't trust you, but-" Matt said frowning.

"I don't want to push him out of my life again." Mimi said with a weak voice. "Please Matt…Please." Mimi muttered. Matt sighed showing that he was thinking about it. Then he finally sighed and smirked at her.

"Fine." He said letting go of her hand. Mimi's mood seemed to liven up.

"Really?" She said smiling.

"Yeah, go." He urged her. Mimi did as told and broke into a run to catch up with Tai.

"Tai! Wait up!" She yelled at him when she caught up to him. He stopped at turned around to face her. "Tai listen, I was talking to Matt and-"

"I know, OK. He doesn't want me to see you. He told me, you told me. I get it!" He said with an angry.

"But-" Mimi tried again.

"I won't butt in! That's what you want right?" He snapped at her and turned to leave.

"Tai wait." Mimi said getting frustrated.

"Mimi I've waited enough." Tai said not sounding any better, "I thought things were going back."

"But Tai! Listen!" Mimi tried once again, with a louder tone. But Tai never stopped to listen. That was it, she wouldn't take it anymore. "FINE! Be like that if you want to! I'm not gonna worry about you anymore!" She yelled at him, but he only showed her the back of his hand. Why was it that when she tried to make things work some one always ended up mad. Maybe she shouldn't be worrying about it that much. Maybe it should be every man by himself. Yeah that's show it would be from now on. No more worrying. Before she knew it Matt caught up to her.

"Ready to go?" He said. Mimi nodded and linked their arms. Matt seemed a bit surprised at this, but smiled at her and began walking. They walked in silence most of the time. But it wasn't an awkward silence. Mimi actually felt quite comfortable just strolling along holding hands. They eventually made it to Mimi's apartment.

"Alright then. I'll call you tonight." Matt said when they were standing in front of her door. She nodded in response and leaned towards Matt for a good-bye kiss, but instead Matt went to kiss her neck. Mimi was not expecting thins and took her by surprise. She had to admit, it was kind of breathtaking, and couldn't help but smile. She gasped a little with every small kiss. When Matt finally stopped there was a small red mark left on her neck. "I better go then." Matt said smirking letting her know that she should head in. "Love you." He said simply as she walked in.

Mimi walked in and closed the door behind her. Home, sweet home indeed. "Where have you been?" Oh no. "Mimi, it's almost four, you finish school at three where have you been?" Her mother insisted. Mimi hesitated looking for words. "Well?"

"I was with Matt, OK?" Mimi snapped at her mom and began to make her way to her room.

"Wait, what's that?" Mrs. Tachikawa said grabbing her elbow to stop her.

"What's that what mother?" Mimi said rolling her eyes.

"Is that a hickey!" Her mom said shocked at what her daughter had on her neck. Mimi hastily brought a hand to cover it. She blushed at this remark. "Are you having sex?" Her mother assumed instantly. Mimi's stomach curled up into a big knot.

"No, mom! I'm not! Leave me alone for a minute OK!" Mimi yelled and stormed up to her room and locked her door. She had just lied to her mom yet again. What a day. She just wanted to sleep to get away from it all.

**Lots of drama, lots of angst. Fun. So now things get even better. I think so anyway. This is where I actually start writing new stuff. Up to here I was just editing the stuff I wrote two years ago. So lets see what two years of slacking off have really done to my writing. I still remember where I wanted to take the story, which is good cause that means it must be good for it to have stay lodged in mah brain for so long. So if the style of the story suddenly changes its okay, its cause its new stuff. So till next chap, toodles.**


	6. Rebellion

**Woo…done. Sorry this took so long for me to post. But like I said this was the first chapter I was actually writing for scratch. The last five I just kinda revised. Also I'm settling down into college so I've had a lot of work on that. Also, another excuse, as you will notice this chapter is really long. 14 pages single spaced…Yeah lots of reading up ahead. So that's it. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 6 – Rebellion**

"Mimi Tachikawa! You're late again!" Mimi's mother yelled at her for the umpteenth time this week. She just rolled her eyes at her and listened uninterestedly. It had been one whole week since she got back together with Matt. And every day after school they stayed at school a little longer and walked home together as slow as they possibly could so they could spend more time together. And for the fifth time her mother was giving her the same lecture. Last week had just been a complete let down. The classes just snailed by and at long last they were free. Today had been the last day before their winter break. They had 4 glorious weeks off. Of course that made no difference to Mimi. Over the last week she had gotten her phone, computer and her going-out privileges taken away. Tai was still mad at her; she had barely seen him through the week. Only occasionally during breaks and in between periods, even then he refused to talk, or even look at her. His tired and sleep-less attitude was back. But Mimi couldn't care less, or so she tried to convince herself. She did feel a bit bad about yelling at him, but she didn't do anything wrong, it was Tai who wouldn't listen. Plus she wasn't about to take her words back. But still, she wished it would just work between Matt and Tai.

"Are you even listening?" Her mother continued…had she been rambling on all this time? "Why are you so rebellious!" She yelled finally. That was it, she had defiantly struck a chord with that one.

"Rebellious? Trust me, I am NOT a rebel!" Mimi snapped back at her mother.

"Don't you talk to me like that! You have been acting so differently these last days. I just don't know what to say to you anymore!"

"Then just don't say anything to me! Leave me alone."

"Why? Why are you…acting like this? Are you just asking for attention?"

"No, you give me TOO much attention. You know what? I just don't care anymore." Mimi yelled she had had enough of her mother. She whipped around, stormed into her room and locked herself in. Inside she took a deep breath and relaxed a bit. She removed the jade colored turtleneck she was wearing and stayed in her pink t-shirt she was wearing under it. She then leaped into her bed and began contemplating the ceiling. She had been wearing turtlenecks or hoodies quite often. Every day to be precise. The reason? Simple: Matt had made it a habit of kissing her neck every day when they said goodbye to each other. So the red marks on her neck just multiplied every day. Mimi knew that it only meant trouble for her and tried to make him stop, but it just felt so good. It made her feel so…vulnerable. She just got so excited when he kissed her like that. She secretly adored the feeling of Matt's kisses on her neck. Mimi reached for the portrait on her night stand. Just days ago she wanted to rip that picture to pieces. Now she was glad she didn't. It was by far her most cherished picture of them. She looked at her clock, she had been there for only a few minutes. Being ground was boring for lack of a better word. She was desperate to get out. Matt had insisted that she snuck out, but Mimi had always refused. She had a feeling it wouldn't help her grounded situation. Her newest argument with her mom had made her seriously reconsider. She leapt from her bed and opened her door ever so slightly. She crept out into the hall, vigilant that her mom wouldn't see her. She made her way into the kitchen and snatched the phone and ran back into her room. She dialed Matt's number by memory…

"Yo…" Matt answered coolly on his cellphone.

"Hi." Mimi said simply, she couldn't help but smile.

"Oh hey baby what's up." Matt said.

"Help me. I can't stand it any longer. I have to get out of here." Mimi said making sure she sounded as helpless as she possibly could. Matt just chuckled.

"Really now. I'm glad to hear that." He said sounding amused. "Can you get out though?"

"I don't think so…not without my parents noticing." She said feeling her spirits okay. Matt stayed quiet for a few seconds.

"…OK I know." He said, "I'll pick you up at midnight. Can you get out then?" He said simply.

"I think so. But why at midnight? What can we do at midnight?" Mimi said feeling curious.

"Oh you'll see, it'll be fun…" He said mysteriously, "Hey listen, I gotta go. I'll be there at midnight. Love you." He finished and hung up. Mimi hang up and threw the phone to the side onto the carpet. What could they possibly do at midnight…unless…he wanted to repeat what had happened last weekend. That's when Mimi began regretting the decision…If that was what he wanted to do. Well either way, all she had to do is well, not sneak out. But still, she really wanted to do something, she was sick and tired of staying indoors for so long. She heaved a giant sight. It was gonna be a long day, longer than it had already been.

Back at Tai's place, he had just finished having dinner with his family. Tai had to say he enjoyed it. Kicking back after school with Kari and his parents always made him feel so relaxed. Right now? He was sitting on their couch watching T.V. His parents were upstairs. Kari was in her room getting ready for something or other. She mentioned something about going out and celebrating the end of classes. As for him, he didn't have much planned. After Mimi made up with Matt things declined back to just about the same as they had been before their short lived break up. Well, except for the fact that he was unemployed. He couldn't believe he had for one second actually though he could have at least one of his true friends back.

"Hey." Kari said suddenly jumping into the couch, sitting next to Tai.

"Hey look at you all dressed up!" Tai joked at his sister who was wearing a new pair of rhinestone patterned jeans, a blue sweater under a tan vest with matching tan winter boots and scarf. "I bet T.K.'s gonna be there huh?" He teased poking at her ribs with his elbow.

"No! That's not- Shut up!" She said quickly, blushing a little. Tai, and everybody else for that matter was, always amused by the huge, gigantic, allegorical crush T.K. and Kari had for each other. Yet, ironically, they were the only two who didn't seem to acknowledge the crush. It was cute at the beginning, but now it was just funny and a little annoying. "T.K. is just-"

"I know, I know. He's just your friend." Tai said imitating her. Kari just giggled and shoved at him.

"Well, what about you, any plans for tonight?" She said boldly changing the subject. Tai sighed and leaned back.

"Uh…no. Not really." Tai said rubbing his face. "I'm probably just gonna kick it back and watch a movie." Kari frowned, it really wasn't like him to stay indoors, especially on a Friday. In fact it had happened a few times already, and she had to admit she was a little worried.

"Come with us." Kari said suddenly, a slight smile growing on her face.

"What?" Tai said a little taken aback.

"Come with us, it will be fun!" She insisted.

"No, no. It's okay really, don't worry about me." Tai said smirking and ruffling her hair slightly. Kari's eyes instantly grew large and she swatted his hand away.

"Do you know how long it took me to get it just right!" She said trying to straighten it back out.

"Don't worry I'm sure T.K. won't mind." Tai said smirking.

"Yeah he w-…" Kari began but stopped, her cheeks flushing "Shut up you jerk!" She finished playfully hitting Tai on the shoulder.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Lemme make up for it. I'll drive you instead of mom. Come on." Tai said standing up and picking up his jacket along the way. Kari nodded and stood up.

"Mom! I'm gonna take Kari to her date! Be back in a few!" Tai yelled taking his mother's car keys from a counter in the kitchen. Kari punched his shoulder at the mention of her non-date.

"Okay! Hurry back." came Mrs. Kamiya's voice from upstairs.

Tai rounded his mother's Toyota Camry around the curve of their building's parking lot and into the heavily trafficated street.

"So where am I going?" Tai asked realizing he didn't quite know where he was going.

"Oh, we're gonna meet at the mall." Kari answered, "So are you sure you don't want to come with us?" She insited.

"Yeah I'm sure. I don't want to be a fifth wheel." Tai said simply.

"You're not a fifth wheel, you know we can hang out together like we used to." Kari said.

"I know, but, it's just that…maybe if some of the guys were here." Tai said turning into the mall's parking lot. Kari sighed. She had noticed Tai's change in attitude a while ago. He never really got over everyone leaving. He wasn't used to change. She missed the other guys too, but she had at least moved on. She made new friends. She still hung out with T.K. and she even stayed in contact with most of their friends.

T.K. waved at them from the entrance of the mall as Tai pulled up to drop his sister off.

"Hey Tai!" he greeted as Kari got off, "How's it going?"

"Hey man, it's all cool." He said, "You kids have fun!" Tai said just before he pointed to both of his eyes and back at T.K. Ah the classic 'I'll be watching you' T.K. smiled at him nervously and Tai chuckled. He was of course joking with him, but T.K. sometimes took it a little seriously. Kari was oblivious to the whole joke, and oblivious to everything else for that matter, like she always was around T.K.

"You sure you're okay?" Kari said before she shut the door.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it." Tai reassured as he began pulling away.

He drove in silence most of the way, he didn't even feel like listening to the radio. He liked driving though, it was relaxing.

"Watch it grandpa!" Someone yelled at him as he jammed the brakes. Relaxing could be a relative term. Especially when compared to road rage.

He was about half way back when he noticed Mimi's building just one block away. Almost instantly he felt tempted to go in and try talking to Mimi. He couldn't stand that they were not talking. After all maybe they could work something out. Right? Oh what the hell. He rounded the corner and drove into the building's lot. It wasn't absurdly late so it should be fine. He parked and turned the car off, but he didn't get off. This was stupid, they were still friends. There had to be a way for them and Matt to get along. But still, she knew how Matt was and that this was going to happen if they got back together. So that means she probably didn't really think much of their friendship is she was so willing to give it up for Matt. Tai was more of a rebound friend than an honest to goodness friend.

"This was stupid anyway…It's probably what she wanted all along." Tai muttered scowling and turned the car back on and pulled out of the lot and headed home.

Up in the building, on the second story Mimi let out two tiny sneezes. "Ugh…Someone must be talking about me." She muttered as she pulled on her tribal tattoo shirt on. She was glad she had gotten to it before her mom had thrown it out. She then eyed the window and had the weirdest feeling. She climbed on her bed and peered out the window to the street down below. Bah, it was just a car pulling out of the parking lot. She quickly dismissed the thought. She had been really paranoid since it began getting dark. She was both looking forward and dreading her date with Matt. She climbed back down and headed to her closet and pulled on her pink and white bunny pajama pants. She had been in the middle of changing when she got the sudden urge to look outside. Anyway, she had to at pretend to go to sleep if she was gonna have any chance of sneaking out. She already had everything planned, it was the actual execution of her plan that had her nervous. There was just one thing left to do, and by far her favorite! Picking what she was gonna wear! She delved deeper into her closet looking for the perfect outfit.

YES! Perfect! She picked a pair of discolored jeans, a long sleeve white button up shirt with a pink tie, orangey brown belt, and small tan over-the-shoulder bag and a matching fluffy scarf. Sure it was gonna be a little chilly, but she was determined to look good. Her scheming was suddenly interrupted by sudden knocking on her door. She quickly stuffed her outfit into a corner and ran out of her closet. She calmed down and breathed deeply and put on a pink turtleneck sweater to cover her neck before opening the door.

"Hey mom." Mimi smiling said shoving aside their old arguments.

"Hi honey, how are you?" She said relatively warmly.

"Bored out of my skull, but good otherwise." She said sitting down on her bed. Her mother smiled at her and sat next to her.

"I talked it over with your dad and we think you've had enough grounding for a week." She said, Mimi's eyes widened.

"Does that mean I can go out then!" She said excitedly, she could throw out her plan and guilt right out the window.

"No." Her mom said firmly. "You're still grounded till tomorrow."

"Oh…okay." Mimi said feeling a little disillusioned, "So why the sudden change of heart?" She asked out of sheer curiosity.

"Well, truth to be told, you've been pretty good at keeping your punishment." She explained, "Apart from being 'fashionably late' after school, you have been good at obeying us." She said placing obvious sarcasm on the lateness comment.

"So you're not mad about spending a little more time with Matt?" Mimi said not really believing what she was hearing.

"Well I was at first, but then your dad reminded me of how when we were dating, he used to walk me all the way home and then having to walk all the walk back to his car just so we could spend a few extra minutes with him." Her mom said blushing a little.

"Wow. I didn't know dad was so romantic." Mimi said smiling slightly.

"Actually, it was me who insisted on the walks. He was always so worried that I might get into trouble." She said giggling. Mimi smiled at her and couldn't help but throw her arms around her. It was just that cute.

"Thanks mom." She finally said letting go.

"Your welcome sweetie, now get to bed." Mrs. Tachikawa said getting up and leaving the room, turning the light off on her way. Mimi quickly jumped into bed and looked at her clock. She had set the alarm for exactly 11:30 pm so she would have a little time to get ready. She stared at her clock from under the covers, watching as the minutes slowly crept by. She quickly pretended to be asleep when her father came into the room, obviously trying to be as quiet as he could. He gave Mimi a quick good night kiss on the cheek and left. A few minutes later the hallway light flicked off. Mimi smiled a bit, she secretly loved her dad's good night gesture. He had been doing it for as long as she could remember. Sometimes he caught her awake, sometimes she just pretended to be asleep, and most of the time she didn't even notice. But she knew he was there every night. It somehow made her feel…safe. And those times she was awake, it made her very sleepy. This was not the exception.

Mimi's eyes snapped wide open at the buzzing of her clock. She quickly grabbed for it and stuffed it under her pillow, scrambling under it to turn it off. She then crawled back under the covers, holding her breath for a few minutes, checking to see if she had woken anybody. After the few agonizing minutes of dead silence she finally built up the courage to get up. She quietly closed the door to her closet, placing a towel at the door before turning on the light. There was absolutely no room for mistakes. She quickly changed into her outfit, deciding to take her shoes in her hand until she was well outside the building. She was about to turn the light off and step out when she noticed the little shelf where she kept rows and rows of necklaces, bracelets and other accessories. It would be a pretty touch. She selected a thin silver necklace with a tiny rose pendant. That's when she noticed a smaller pendant like necklace. It was gold and had a long hexagonal shape, with a in the middle compartment. It was her tag, and inside was her green crest of sincerity. She carefully took it and noticed it felt very cold. She had sometimes worn it and it usually emanated a warm feeling, it felt really different somehow. Well she probably knew why. She frowned and put it back in its place, and walking out.

Mimi descended the stair case in a very catlike fashion. She had peeked inside her parent's room. No motion, so far so good. Then it was the hardest of all. The front door. She carefully twisted the knob and creaked it open just barely enough so she could squeeze through. Well it was either successful or she was in for a hellish punishment tomorrow. She kneeled down and slipped her shoes on, and continued on her way out.

"You're late." Matt said as Mimi gave so much as one step outside the building. She scowled rather taken aback.

"Excuse me?" Mimi said in a frown, "Well I'm sorry if I'm such a –mgff…mmm…" she began but was cut off by a slight smirk from Matt just before he leaned over and kissed her. "Okay…" She muttered blushing when their lips parted.

"Alright lets go." Matt said offering her a hand, Mimi took it an allowed her to guide them to where ever they were going. "This is gonna be fun…"

"Wait!" Mimi said stopping suddenly and snapping back from la-la land, realizing what her meant by 'fun'. "Matt I really don't think we should do…this, just yet." She said quickly.

"Do…what exactly." Matt said and cocked his eyebrow at her.

"You know…it." She said whispering the very last part even though it was the dead middle of the night and clearly no one was around.

"Just where do you think we're going, huh?" Matt said feeling amused.

"Um…I just assumed that back to…you know…you're place?" Mimi tried.

"No see, YOU'RE the one with the pervy little head." Matt said chuckling and placing his index on her forehead. "We're not going to my place." He said firmly.

"Then…where?" Mimi said feeling embarrassed about the whole assumption.

"You'll see." She said mysteriously and began guiding her again. Mimi nodded with sudden curiosity and followed eagerly.

Mimi soon began regretting her choice of outfit, it was more than chilly. Her thin shirt was not doing much to compensate. She clung firmly to Matt's arm, snuggling close to her. Matt noticed and took off his own navy blue jacket and draped it over her shoulders, leaving him an a simple yellow t-shirt over a black long sleeve.

"Hey, won't you be cold." Mimi said removing the jacket and offering it back to him.

"Don't worry about me. We're here anyway." He said and gestured towards a large building. Mimi leaned her head to the side.

"A…parking lot?" She said not really getting it. They were standing in front of what looked like an ancient 5 story parking lot.

"It's inside. Come on." Matt said, he sounded oddly exited. They climbed to the very top floor. Inside there a few assorted cars, most of which looked in regular condition, nothing too horribly out of the ordinary.

"Here she is." Matt said finally stopping in front of a car. Except this one was defiantly different. Mimi had seen a few cars like these around town but she never really paid much attention to them. This one though, it called for attention. It was a Mitsubishi Eclipse. Its paint was metallic yellow with black and blue designs on the sides. The bottom of the car was merely inches off the floor. The rims looked different too, they were bigger and chromed and defiantly looked like they did not come with the car. And lastly the windows, they were considerably darker and had a sort of blue hue to them. Mimi looked at Matt questionably, who chuckled at her how naïve she was. "This. Is a street racing car." Matt said.

"A what? Oh no! No, no, no, no!" Mimi said realizing just what Matt had planned. "I am NOT getting on this thing."

"Yes you are." He said simply, a slight smile growing on his face. No way, this was dangerous, it was so far past dangerous, there was absolutely NO way she was getting on that car. Matt on the other hand was already inside and had turned it on. Even Mimi could tell the engine sounded different. It was rougher and louder, much, much louder than a regular one. Matt reached over and opened the door on Mimi's side. "Come on." He invited smirking at her. Mimi shook her head and did not move a muscle. "What, don't you trust me?" he said offering her his hand.

"It's not that, it's just that…" She said, but Matt only stared a piercing stare and did not move his hand an inch. Mimi sighed and slowly reached for it. As soon as she was within reach, he grabbed it and practically pulled her in.

"Alright, before we go. No one knows about this, absolutely NO ONE. Not even T.K. So you can't go around telling anyone OK?" He said firmly. Mimi nodded. Then Matt revved the engine up loudly and pulled out the parking lot, the tires making a loud screech as they hit the pavement.

"So what exactly are we gonna do?" Mimi asked, she was already in deep so might as well show interest.

"A few friends are gathering on the other side of the highway, gonna run a few times. Nothing too heavy." He said as they got on the onramp towards the highway. Mimi's noticed that as soon as he was on the highway he began to speed up. Pretty soon Mimi's speed comfort was out the window. That's when she noticed up ahead.

"Matt…there are cops up ahead." She said trying to get his attention, but he didn't slow down, instead he just smirked. "Matt the police…" She insisted getting really worried now. She sunk into her seat as they zoomed past the squad car. She couldn't believe her first sneak out was gonna end up at the police department. She looked back through the mirror and was surprised to see that the police wasn't in fact chasing them. "Um…what just happened?" Mimi said.

"The cops don't exactly have nice cars. They can't keep up with a car like this so they usually just don't bother." Matt said smiling.

"You scared me you big jerk!" Mimi said slapping his shoulder. "I though I was gonna be in jail by dawn." She said scowling. Matt just chuckled at her as he finally slowed down to get off the highway and head into what should have been an empty street near the docks. As they turned a corner, it revealed hundreds upon hundreds of people out on the street. Many other cars of other shapes and sizes were lined up with their hoods up. People flocked from car to car inspecting the engines and listening to the obnoxiously loud music. Matt found a place and parked his own car, and popped the hood.

"Is this you're idea of a few people?" Mimi tease feeling a wee bit more exited as they got out. This could be fun after all. Matt smiled and threw an arm around her shoulder and people came close to look at his car.

"Ey! Matt, thought you weren't gonna make it!" A voice said from in-between the crowds.

"Hey Leon." Matt said simply and a guy around his age approached them. He had light brown messy hair and Moorish eyes. He was wearing a large black sweatshirt and baggy jeans. He came up close to them and tossed a beer can at Matt. He had another one for himself.

"Heeey. Who's the lady?" He said smiling at Mimi.

"This is my girlfriend, Mimi Tachikawa. Mimi, this is Leon, he a good friend." Matt introduced.

"Nice to meet you." Mimi said shyly.

"Pleasure." Leon said simply, "Say, you seem to be drying up. Here's first one's on me." He said opening his beer can and pushing it into Mimi's hands.

"No, it's okay really." Mimi said quickly and offered the beer back.

"Don't worry about it doll." Leon said, "Yo Yosuke! Beer me!" he yelled towards another direction. A few seconds later he caught another beer can that seemed to just appeared from the crowd. "See? It's all cool. Cheers." He said opening it, raising it and, taking a big swig. Matt chuckled and raised his own, taking a drink. Mimi hesitated, but took a tiny sip of hers. She had to admit…it was the most horrible thing she had ever tasted. It took all her will power not to make a face when she swallowed it.

"Heh, don't worry. The more you drink, the better it will taste." Leon said seeing through her. Matt just chuckled. "So hey, Matt, who's it gonna be tonight?"

"I dunno." Matt said simply, "Who's out there?"

"There's a one on one goin on. Haruki vs Kiyoshi. ¥20 g's." Leon informed, sounding a bit more serious. Matt nodded.

"You raced yet?" He asked.

"Naw, I came for the booze and thee ladies tonight." He said taking another large swig. "Heeey." He flirted suddenly at a girl passing by. Matt smirked at him. Mimi just watched with amusement. She occasionally took tiny sips from her beer. It really didn't taste good at all, yet she didn't seem too keen on just throwing it away.

"Heads up." Matt said suddenly. Leon turned around to be face to face with another, rather large guy. He easily pushed Leon out of the way and came up close to Matt. "

"Is this piece of junk yours?" He said sternly.

"I'm standing next to it." He said shrugging.

"Heh, I can take you. You up for it?" He said leaning over the hood of Matt's car, inspecting it. "¥30,000 right now." He said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a large wad of bills. Matt raised and eyebrow, while Mimi's eyes widened. That was a big bet.

"You're on." Matt said reaching into his wallet and matching his bet. Mimi was even more surprised that Matt was carrying that amount in his wallet, if not more. The guy smirked and walked away.

"That's Shen right?" Matt said letting go of Mimi and chugging what was left of his beer, then crushing the can.

"Yeah you can take him, no prob!" Leon said.

"Mimi you stay with Leon, it will be quick." He said kissing her softly and returning to his car.

"Hey I got a better idea." Leon said, "Why doesn't she start the race?" He suggested.

"Wait what?" Mimi said choking on her sip of beer. She had absolutely no idea what starting a race was about.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine!" Matt said and drove off to line up.

"You're gonna like this, come on!" Leon said grabbing her wrist and leading her through the crowds of people. The came up close to a pair of cars that were lining up to race. "Take a look it's easy." Leon said pointing at the long dark haired girl that was standing between the cars. She stood in the very middle of both cars, shaking her hips to the beat of the loud music. She looked at one driver, who revved his engine. She looked at the other, who matched the noise. She raised her hands then…brought them down fast. Almost immediately both cars shifter into gear, their tires screeching bloody murder, and they were off. "See? Piece of cake." Leon said.

"Yeah…easy." Mimi sighed nervously. She then noticed Matt was lining up along with another red car. She could see it was that Shen guy.

"Alright, you're up!" Leon said excitedly, "Take big chug, for courage." He said motioning to her beer. She hesitated at first, oh what the hell. She raised the can and took the biggest gulp she could. Gah! It was even more horrible. She could feel her head already getting lighter. Still, she needed to concentrate, she would go out there, then when she was ready, "Go!" Leon said and shoved her into the middle of the street. Oh great. Well too late to turn back now. She walked slowly and stood in-between both car like she had seen the last girl do. Almost instantly she began to notice the people around her whistling and yelling random, and not to mention, lame pickup lines at her. Still, she looked down blushing, trying to ignore them.

"Hey baby cakes, dump that asshole and I'll show you a good time, right after I beat him." That Shen guy yelled at her, revving his engine. Mimi grimaced and quickly turned to Matt.

"Don't worry. I'll beat him. He's got nothing." Matt said winking at her, and he too revved his engine.

"Be careful." She mouthed at Matt. Well this was it. She raised her hands slowly, the engines revving even louder than before. He left them up there for a few seconds and brought them down. Both cars switched into gear, their tires screeching and smoking, they zoomed by her. Out of sheer instinct she kneeled down and threw her arms over her head, she could have sworn one of the cars was going to hit her. But of course that didn't happen, she could already hear the sounds of the cars growing fainter and fainter. She slowly got back up looking at the tiny pairs of red taillights getting further and further away.

"That was great!" Leon said suddenly, walking up to her, wrapping his arm around her neck and drawing her off the middle of the road so another pair of racers could line up. They walked to another of the many cars that were parked. "Here." He said letting go and reaching through the window and pulling out two more cans of beer. He opened one and handed it to her.

"Is that your car?" She asked taking the can and taking her small sip. Hmm…this time it was a little bit more tolerable.

"Yeah, mah baby." He said tapping the roof. Mimi smiled.

"What kind is it?" She asked not really recognizing it.

"Ford, Mustang." He said sounding proud. He leaned against it taking swigs of his beer.

"So you're American?" Mimi asked, realizing why he had a strange accent. She had noticed it, but hadn't asked.

"Eh…not really. Mexican actually." He said.

"Really?" Mimi said rising her eyebrows, "So if you're Mexican why are you driving an all out American car?" She said smirking.

"That's cause…well…bug off!" He said elbowing her. Mimi chuckled at him. Then she noticed Matt driving up to them. When he got close, people noticed and began cheering, indicating he had won. Matt got out and walked towards them. Mimi ran to him and hugged him.

"Told ya." He said wrapping his arms around her. Mimi in response pressed her lips against his. "I think you've had enough of these." Matt said as her broke the kiss and snatched the beer can out of her hands.

"Hey, that's mine." She complained as he threw the can at Leon and glared at him. Leon caught it smiling, and shrugged his shoulders. Matt smirked at him and turned back to Mimi. "Matt, I wanna dance. Lets go dance."

"Sure." He said smiling. He took his keys out and locked his car. "I'll catch ya later Leon." He said and led Mimi into a crowd that was dancing around one of the better sounding cars. Mimi leaned her back against Matt's chest and they bought caught up to the beat of the loud hip-hop that was playing. "You having fun?" Matt asked as he placed his hands on her hips. Mimi just nodded closing her eyes.

"This is all new to me, but it's not that bad." She whispered. "Thanks a lot. I really needed to get out." She said turning around to face him. Matt smiled leaned over her, passionately pressing his lips against hers. Mimi closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. She couldn't help but smile a bit when his tongue made it past her own lips. She was feeling rather…adventurous. He cheeks turned deep read at the mere thought. She clenched part of his shirt in her fists as she tried to pull him even closer. Matt in turn let his hands wonder down to her hips and even a little bit under her shirt. Mimi jumped as he carefully caressed her belly and lower back. His hands were cold from the weather out sending chills up and down her spine. It felt…tingly. Somehow she didn't feel like caring that they were in a very public place or care about anyone that might be looking.

"Hey are you that rookie who beat Shen?" Someone said suddenly as Matt was forced away from Mimi. Matt scowled at their sudden interruption. Mimi jumped taken completely by surprise. She was so into the kiss…er…make out, that she didn't notice anyone one approaching them.

"Who wants to know." Matt said sharply. The guy standing in front of them was tall and lanky. His skin was pale and his face bony. His hair was jet black and greasy; some of the bangs fell over his face, covering some of his eyes. He was wearing a white shirt over a long coat. Behind him there were two other guys even taller and bulkier than him.

"Name's Sasuke." He said grinning and extending his hand at him. Matt looked down at it and hesitated, but took it. "It was interesting seeing you beat Shen." He said. Matt smirked at him.

"He was cocky." Matt explained.

"Race me. ¥100,000." He said snapping his finger. One of the guys behind him reached into his coat and pulled out a neat stack of bills. Matt raised his eyebrows, but erased the expression quickly. Mimi on the other hand, her eyes grew as large as plates.

"All right your on." Matt said smirking. Sasuke smiled grimly and turned around heading towards his car, his two lackeys following close behind.

"Matt, that's a lot of money. What if you loose? Can you pay him?" Mimi said growing concerned.

"Don't worry. He's just a rich momma's boy." Matt said as Leon approached him. His expression seemed a bit different too.

"Hey, what did Sasuke want?" He asked.

"Not much, he challenged me to a race." Matt said smirking.

"You said no right?" Leon said quickly.

"No, I accepted. He wagered ¥100 g's." Matt said sounding happy with himself.

"Dude! Do you know who he is?" Leon said nervously.

"Some cocky rich kid?" Matt said frowning.

"He's Sasuke Yoshida. The son of Kensuke Yoshida. He's Yakuza…" He said whispering the last part. Matt's eyes instantly widened.

"Oh shit...oh shit, shit, shit…" Matt said rubbing his face. Mimi frowned getting worried at what she was hearing.

"You have to loose that race." Leon said sounding very concerned now.

"I can't, I don't have enough to pay him. Even with what I got from Shen I'm short ¥20,000." Matt said sounding grim.

"Damn it Matt!" Leon yelled, "Why the hell would you get in on a race if you don't have enough to pay!"

"I though he was just some snob! I though I could take him!" Matt explained.

"You take him and you die! You don't pay him and you die!" Leon yelled. He panted a little then took a deep breath. Mimi's heart was pounding up in her throat now.

"What are we gonna do?" Mimi said, she could feel fearful tears building up behind her eyes.

"Don't worry I'll think of something…" Matt said as calmly as he could, squeezing her hand, hoping to comfort her.

"Okay listen…I have ¥8,000 with me…I'll try to pull some strings with some of my friends see what I can do. If I can't get the cash, you'll just have to give him your car." Leon said. Matt's eye narrowed…he was right. But he didn't want to give up his car. He had spent so much time getting it, fixing it AND tuning it. He slammed his fist on the top of the hood.

"Matt calm down…" Mimi whispered. She was really scared by now.

"Yo, you gotta get to that race." Leon said. Matt nodded.

"Mimi." Matt said placing both hands on her shoulders. Mimi couldn't help it any more; tears began flowing from her eyes, running down her soft cheeks. "Listen, listen to me…" He said looking deeply into his her tear filled eyes. "I know you're scared. I am too, but everything will work out. I promise." Matt said, Mimi nodded slightly. "Good, now I want you to stay with Leon. I'll be back as soon as I can so we can leave, okay?" Matt said choosing his words carefully. Mimi nodded again and Matt turned to Leon.

"Hey, take care of her till I get back will ya?" Matt said as he got into his car. Leon just nodded at him.

"Matt!" Mimi said suddenly.

"I know…I'll be careful." Matt said with a fake smile and drove off to the road. Mimi turned to Leon. He looked grim.

"Okay we gotta go get that money…" Leon said and grabbed Mimi by her wrist. She could hear that the race had already started and both cars were speeding off. They went up to the first person and Leon began talking to him. Mimi looked and around and noticed the crowds were acting a bit differently. The mood in the air seemed to be tenser. The loud music seemed to be a lot quieter and not as cluttered, "Mimi!" Leon said suddenly, "We gotta go! The cops got wind of what's going on! They are on their way!" He said looking even worse. Mimi paid attention to her surroundings; she could defiantly hear the faint sound of many sirens getting closer and closer. She noticed the crowds getting more desperate. Many made breaks for their cars while many others just made a run for it into the streets and alleys. She turned back to Leon, but he was nowhere in sight. She looked around frantically as many people rushed around her, some even shoving her out of the way. "Mimi! COME ON!" Leon said out of nowhere. Mimi found herself being led by her wrist again. They were getting close to Leon's car we he was suddenly let go of Mimi. She lost her balance and collapsed to the floor.

"Leon!" she screamed in terror as she saw Leon being rammed against the side of his own car by a policeman. He had both his arms forced behind his back and was being handcuffed.

"Mimi! Don't stand there! Run!" He yelled as he struggled to get free, but to no avail. Mimi yelped as she got up, she had hit knees, her jeans had even ripped. She forced herself to swallow the stinging and broke into an all out run in a random direction. She hadn't gone far when she was abruptly stopped. She looked around, but she already knew what had happened. An officer had easily caught up to her and grabbed hold of her elbow. He forced her to her knees and got and iron hold on her arms, locking them behind her back. He reached for his belt and got his handcuffs. Mimi struggled, but there wasn't much she could do. She felt the cold steel of the handcuffs going around her tiny wrist. From that instant on she knew it was over. There wasn't much more she could do so she just stopped struggling…

**

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**THAT'S IT! No more! I AM DONE.**

**A cliffhanger of sorts. Well I sort of have an idea of what's gonna happen next, I just kinda need to get it all in order so we'll see. Thanks again for all the feed back! Anyway, this is a rough draft. I just winged it. So I'll probably go back and proofread/edit it a little in the next few days. Nothing big though, the main idea is there. Oh and uh, I mentioned brands. Bad Chame BAD! So in case this is needed I disclaim all ownership of the Toyota Camry, Mitsubishi Eclipse, and Ford Mustang. And it should go without saying, but Digimon too.**

**And one more thing…ZOMG SELF-INSERTION! Yeah that's right, Leon is me. My friends over in high school used to call me Leon…For some reason. That is not even close to my real name. Anyway, I don't REALLY drive a Mustang, but I would like too. Mustang and the Eclipse are my all time favorite cars. Also I am not into the whole street racing gig. It would be fun though. Well except for the fact that it's hella expensive and uh…oh yeah illegal. And lastly I don't live/have been in Japan, but again, I would like to. So in conclusion: I'm a Mary Sue! ZOMG PWNED…**


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